Moving Up
by sandyfin
Summary: Highlights and milestones of Jamie and Eddie's relationship as they build on all the progress they made in San Diego. Sequel to "The Conference."
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This followup to "The Conference" will read like a series of one-shots highlighting important parts of Jamie and Eddie's relationship as they build on everything that started in San Diego. Mostly I'm really excited about the_ next _installment of the story, so this sequel is basically just a bridge to get there. First scene divided into two chapters because it ended up being so long. Read, review, enjoy! -Sandy_

* * *

 _Sunday, March 12_

"And don't mind Erin and Danny," Jamie said for about the fifteenth time since they'd finalized their plans to bring Eddie to her first Sunday dinner. Other than running into Erin while testifying for another ADA's case earlier in the week, today was Eddie's first time seeing any of the Reagan family as Jamie's girlfriend. "They're annoying but they're harmless."

Eddie smirked. " _Mind_ them? I won't mind them at all. I'm looking forward to hearing all the embarrassing Baby Jamie stories they've got."

"What? That's not fair," Jamie whined. "You're supposed to stand up for me, not gang up on me _with them_!"

She snaked her arms around his waist from behind and pressed her chin into his shoulder. "But what fun would that be?" she grinned.

Jamie turned his head to kiss the side of hers. "Fine then," he said, freeing himself from her grasp. "I'll just tell them your hockey team—see how they like you then."

"You wouldn't," Eddie gasped.

He flicked his eyebrows at her. "Then you better behave yourself. Come on, we have to go."

"I didn't think you'd hit below the belt, boy scout," Eddie said as she walked out the door of Jamie's apartment.

Jamie closed the door and locked it. "Self-defense. Anything goes," he called after her.

"But the Flyers thing? I thought you want them to _like_ me. And your life will be hell just like mine if they don't." She stuck her chin out defiantly as he caught up to her. "So you might want to think twice about that little plan of yours."

"Damn," Jamie muttered. "There is no way for me to win this, is there?"

"Oh, don't worry," Eddie crooned. "If we're too mean I promise I'll make it up to you later."

Jamie's eyes went wide, humoring her. "Well then," he said, swallowing hard. "If that's the deal I'll tell you every embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me—myself."

* * *

She hoped she covered it well with the jokes, but Eddie was much more nervous about family dinner than she let on. She'd heard Frank's reaction firsthand, having been in the room when Jamie made the phone call after work on their first day back from the conference, and Jamie had assured her that everyone else was just as excited—but that didn't help loosen the tightly wound knot floating behind her belly button.

Jamie threw his Mustang into neutral and toggled the gearshift a couple times. "You ready?"

"Are _you_?" she shot back, hoping once again that her external confidence might actually turn genuine this time. It didn't.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," Jamie said.

"Let's go then!" She blindly swatted at the door until she finally landed on the handle and opened it.

"Yes, let's," Jamie said, raising his eyebrows suspiciously as he climbed out of his own side. He rounded the front of the car and took Eddie's waiting hand to lead her around back to the kitchen door.

"You know, embarrassing stories are great, but I'm really hoping we can break out the naked baby pictures today," Eddie teased.

"Oh, no, please don't say that in front of my sister," Jamie pleaded.

"Okay, alright," she sighed dramatically. "We can save the naked baby pictures for _next_ Sunday."

Jamie opened the door and ushered Eddie past him. "Hey, everyone," he called over her.

Nicky, Jack, and Sean stood side-by-side at the counter as they chopped salad ingredients. "Hi, Uncle Jamie," the boys intoned.

Nicky glanced up as Jamie closed the door. "Hey," she said quietly. She was the only member of the family who was less than happy about Eddie's new position in Jamie's life. It wasn't that Nicky disliked Eddie; she was just still embarrassed about the results of her recent ride-along, and she worried that Eddie still blamed her for everything that had gone wrong.

"Boys, this is my girlfriend Eddie," Jamie said. "That's Jack, and this is Sean. And Eddie, you know Nicky."

Nicky offered a tight-lipped smile and quickly turned back to her work as the boys shook Eddie's hand.

"Hang on, hang on—I want to hug you but my hands are a mess," Linda said. She swooped around the island to get to the sink.

"And that's Linda," Jamie laughed. "Have you two met before?"

"We've run into each other at the hospital," Eddie said.

"Oh, good, I couldn't remember."

Linda dried her hands on a towel and shoved it at Jamie as she moved in to hug Eddie. "I'm so glad you're here," she gushed. "I've been hearing all about you for so long—"

Eddie glanced at Jamie questioningly, a move that wasn't lost on Linda. "Oh, from him, from Danny and Erin too," she continued. "They've both been saying for _ages_ how you're perfect for Jamie. I'm just excited to get to know you better myself."

Eddie just smiled. So far, so good, but she always knew Linda and the kids would be easy—she wasn't sure what was up with Nicky, but she didn't care about that right now. She still had two police commissioners, the detective, and the ADA to greet—though she reminded herself, they were just Jamie's dad, grandpa, brother and sister. There would be no hiding behind professional courtesies today, and that was what scared her.

Jamie's gentle squeeze of her shoulder brought her back into his childhood kitchen. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Aunt Erin ran to the store," Jack said.

"And Henry went with her," Linda added. "Danny and your dad are in the other room."

"Well, can we help out with anything in here?"

"Um, everything's just about done, but you can pour the wine."

"Perfect." Jamie started to open the bottle as Eddie busied herself moving the glasses that Linda had set on the island.

"Jamie. Glad you made it."

Jamie and Eddie turned to see Frank's imposing figure in the doorway.

"Eddie," Frank continued, nodding at her. "We're glad to have you here. Seems like it was long enough in the making."

She smiled bashfully and forced herself to keep her eyes forward, no matter how badly she wanted to shrink sideways and look at Jamie. She felt his hand high on her back, between her shoulder blades, which helped a little. "Thanks. I'm really excited to finally be a part of the famous Reagan Sunday dinner."

"Famous?" Frank repeated. "Now is that among all the officers, son, or only the ones who've ridden in a radio car with you?"

Eddie tried not to physically cringe—was the Commissioner really taking a crack at their partnership? Did he think they'd crossed the line while they were still partners? Sure, during the phone call when he found out, Frank had praised them for "doing the right thing" and requesting a change at work as soon as they decided to date. But what if he didn't believe that it was the truth?

"I think Danny got word out to half the patrol division before he got his gold shield," Jamie said smoothly, "but Eddie has heard plenty of stories, too."

She exhaled a controlled breath and silently willed Jamie to keep his hand on her back. It was the only thing grounding her as her mind and stomach turned nauseating somersaults.

"Hopefully good ones," Frank said. "Tell me, Eddie, do you have a big family? If you don't, well, you're in for a spectacle."

Her family? Five minutes in the house and they'd already touched on her and Jamie's partnership and now her _family_? God, this was a disaster. She knew Jamie had told his father about her background—so why would he ask? It was like he was _trying_ to make her feel as if she wasn't the right—

 _No_ , Eddie mentally screamed at herself. He was just making friendly conversation. If she kept overanalyzing every word out of Frank's mouth she'd drive herself insane before they even sat down to eat.

"I'm an only child, but I grew up with a pretty big extended family," she said in what she hoped was a casual tone. She didn't mention that she hadn't heard from most of that extended family in years. Her father's business dealings had wiped out the wealth of all her aunts and uncles on both sides, and those relationships had never been repaired.

"So you've got an idea what you're in for," Frank said with another nod and flat smile. "Need me to take anything to the table, Linda?"

Eddie closed her eyes for the length of one deep, stabilizing breath and hoped that dinner itself would go a little more smoothly.

Danny appeared and Erin and Henry returned from the store at some point, but there wasn't time for anything except quick hellos in the flurry of activity as dishes were carried to the table. Then Eddie found herself sinking into a chair on Jamie's right, cattycorner to his grandfather, and bowing her head as Frank said grace.

"Now Eddie," Henry rumbled as everybody looked up. "You'll have to learn to speak up around here if you plan to get what you want. Don't be shy."

"Eddie's never had a problem being shy, Pop," Jamie said. "Especially when there's food involved."

For once Eddie didn't even pretend to be bothered by his quip about her diet.

"So tell me," Danny smacked through a mouthful of green beans, "who won the precinct pool? All I know's it wasn't me."

"Uh, what?" Jamie asked.

"Come on, you're saying you didn't know? Maldonado out of your house has been taking bets since two Thanksgivings ago, when you two would get your heads out of—"

Linda loudly cleared her throat and shot Danny a look.

"When you two would figure out that you shouldn't be partners anymore," Danny finished. "It was just open to patrol in the Twelfth but I got in on account of I'm family. Closest date without going over wins. Somebody musta gotten five hundred bucks…"

Frank frowned. "Are you telling me that I have officers running gambling operations out of my precincts based on other officers' personal lives?"

"What? No," Danny scoffed. "It was just this. Maldonado's been running the March Madness pool for ten years and he just thought it would be funny, you know, since nobody ever thought the kid would grow—"

Linda cleared her throat again.

"—up and realize he should be with the person who makes him happy. Geez, Linda, what'd you think I was gonna say?"

Eddie stole a glance at Jamie, whose focus was across the table on his brother. With a plate full of food and Danny on the hot seat instead of her, she could feel her nerves dissolving just a little.

"He thought it would be funny is all, Dad," Danny continued in response to Frank's probing look.

"I knew about it," Eddie admitted. "I didn't know there was _that_ much money on the table but Kara Walsh asked for my input before she made her guess."

"She did?" Jamie said, furrowing his eyebrows in disbelief. "What did you tell her?"

Eddie shrugged. "It was last year. I don't remember—I probably just told her that it was never going to happen."

Danny waved his fork in Eddie's direction. "See? Even _she_ didn't think he'd ever do it."

Jamie met Eddie's eyes with a smug smile. "And yet here you are."

"You know what? It's sweet that you guys waited so long," Erin said.

"Yeah," Linda agreed. "The best relationships start from a long basis of friendship."

"Exactly. There's no awkward getting to know each other, no weird surprises—you can just progress naturally and there's a whole lot less to worry about," Erin continued.

Sean leaned forward to look at his mother. "Were you and Dad friends for a long time before you were boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Danny ignored his son and opened his mouth before Linda could answer. "But there's also something to be said about being honest and acting on your feelings when you know you have them. No need to skirt around it like you're in middle school." He shifted his entire body to look at Jamie. "And don't even start with the whole _partners_ thing. Why would you ever think that sitting in a car with her all day could measure up to being her boyfriend if you knew you felt that way?"

"Danny," Henry warned.

"If he wants your opinion he'll ask for it," Linda added.

"We're dating now, Danny, so can it," Jamie said.

"I'm just saying, you both could've saved yourselves some trouble if you'd seen what's right in front of you a year ago."

Eddie narrowed her eyes and smirked. "A year ago? Is that the date you put in the pool?" she asked, her voice low.

"Valentines Day 2016," Danny mumbled with a shake of his head.

"Valentines Day? Really?" Erin scoffed. "You thought he'd do something that cliché?"

"Hey, what's more cliché than hoo—" Danny covered himself with a small cough without even having to see the look on his wife's face. "Than two coworkers getting together on a work trip?"

"You know, sometimes the change of scenery and a different pace is exactly the push you need," Linda said. "I think it's great, you two."

Eddie grinned at Jamie, an expression he returned. She was still a little nervous, but every second it became easier to cover it up.

"And anyway, Jamie's always moved slowly when it comes to the ladies. You know that, Danny," Erin said mischievously.

"Oh, here we go," Jamie groaned, falling back against his chair.

Erin smirked. "How long did it take you to work up the nerve to ask Hannah Pearson to be your date to your senior banquet? Three weeks? A month?"

"He had a crush on her from the ninth grade," Danny said.

"I did not," Jamie argued.

"You did—I saw it every single time I was home. It was Hannah this, Hannah that, guess what Hannah said at lunch today…"

"She didn't transfer in from public school until sophomore year, Danny," Jamie corrected. "And I dated a different Hannah junior year. Hannah Lazerson. That's who you're thinking of."

"What? No," Danny insisted. "There was just the one."

"There were _two_ , but sure, go ahead and claim you know better than I do."

"Whatever. But there are some stories that we _definitely_ know better than you do," Danny said. "And there are at least a couple that prove that you haven't _always_ had this shyness around girls."

"Eddie, have you ever heard about my ninth birthday party?" Erin smirked.

"Um, no, I haven't," Eddie said, shooting Jamie a quick grin as she leaned forward to see Erin.

Jamie grimaced. "What, did you guys rehearse that lead-in?"

"I had fifteen girls over," Erin said, ignoring him. "We're in the backyard, having a great time—both my parents are out there with us, and my brothers are all supposed to stay inside until Mom lets them come eat the extra cake. But right as Mom is lighting the candles and Dad's videotaping and my friends are getting ready to sing, _Jamie_ marches out on the back patio, stark naked."

Eddie glanced at Jamie and giggled as Erin continued.

"I'm at the end of the table facing the patio but everyone's looking at me so I'm the only one who sees him at first," she went on. "But then he goes and _falls_ down the little step at the end of the patio and he just starts screaming and crying—"

"I was _two_ ," Jamie cut in. "Danny and Joe sent me outside."

"It's not our fault you always took your diaper off when you woke up from a nap," Danny shrugged. "I sure as hell wasn't going to put another one on you."

"I was so surprised by the sound that I panned over with the video camera and caught a good few seconds of Jamie lying on the ground before his mom put the matches down and got to him," Frank added. "All you can hear is me yelling for Danny and Joe to come out and get him—I knew exactly what was going on. Oh, we should see if we've still got that tape."

By now everybody at the table was laughing except Jamie, who leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. "I don't know why you all think this should be embarrassing to _me_ ," he said. "Danny, you're the one who got in trouble in front of all Erin's friends."

"That's true!" Erin confirmed. "Mom told you that you couldn't have any cake and so you spent the rest of the party pouting and whining like _you_ were the baby."

"Did not," Danny scoffed.

"You did," Frank nodded. "There's video evidence of that, too."

Finally Jamie let out a chuckle. "Really, guys, if the best you can do is embarrassing stories about _Danny_ —"

"Oh, I'm sure we can come up with something better," Erin said.

"Yeah, how about anything to do with that drum set you got for Christmas when you were seven?"

"There's nothing embarrassing about that either," Jamie said. "Man, you guys are off your game."

"Well, it's just been so long since you brought a girl home, we're all out of practice," Danny explained.

"Ohhh-kay," Jamie groaned. "That's enough. Nicky, could you pass the salt?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Part two of Sunday dinner. Enjoy!

* * *

"We got off to a touchy start there in the kitchen, but it was actually pretty fun."

"See? Told you there was nothing to worry about," Jamie said. "That's Erin's old room right there."

"Please," Eddie jeered, ducking her head in the doorway for a second. "You were more worried than I was." It was a lie, but one she could afford to tell now that dinner was over and she'd made it through the whole thing without giving away just how apprehensive she'd been at the beginning. The wine and the stories had helped calm her down so that her easygoing act eventually became real.

"And my room," Jamie said. He flattened his back against the door to let her pass.

Eddie focused immediately on the small collection of trophies on the top shelf of the bookcase near the closet door. "Wow, you were quite the accomplished little guy, Reagan."

"What can I say?" Jamie said, puffing out his chest as he moved behind her.

"Oh my God," Eddie giggled as her eyes landed on a plaque resting on a stand along with the trophies. "Northeast Region Speech and Debate Champion?"

"And second at Nationals against all the other Catholic schools in the country," he said proudly, just challenging her to make fun of him.

Eddie raised her eyebrows. "Second? Slacker."

"Those damn Oregon kids," Jamie sighed, shaking his head.

"Excuses, excuses. Basketball?" She brushed her fingers across another of the trophies, one of several topped with a figurine of a person shooting a layup.

"State champion, sophomore year. Then our two big guards graduated and we sucked after that."

Eddie flicked her eyes up and down his body, sizing him up. "Eh," she concluded. "I could take you in one-on-one."

Jamie frowned his disagreement. "You could not, shorty."

"I may be short," she conceded, "but I'm scrappy."

"You can't just tickle your opponent in one-on-one basketball," Jamie scoffed. "That's not scrappy, that's cheating."

"You think I'd have to resort to _tickling_? I'd beat you fair and square, Reagan."

"Fine, then, we'll play later," Jamie challenged.

"And you'll lose." Eddie glanced at the twin bed tucked in the opposite corner of the room and took a step closer to Jamie. "So. How many girls did you sneak up here to _study_ while you were in high school?"

"Oh, a couple," Jamie said airily.

"And how much studying actually went on?" she pushed.

"Nothing but," he replied, teasing her with a small quirk at the corner of his mouth. "Kept one foot on the floor at all times, door open."

"Uh-huh."

"There had to be rules when the ladies were just _lining up_ for their shot at the national debate runner-up."

"I'm sure they were," Eddie said, and she patted his chest before turning to look back at the bookshelf.

Jamie closed one hand around her wrist. "Come on, you. We should get out of here before you find my rock collection and you _really_ can't keep your hands off me."

"Oh, God," Eddie giggled, stumbling out of the room behind him.

"So, you two," Danny said as they came into the kitchen. "How's it been, riding with other people?"

Eddie smirked. "Yeah, Jamie, why don't you tell them all about your new partner?"

He groaned heavily. "You remember that clown, your friend's son who you asked me to mentor a while back?"

"Yeah," Danny said suspiciously.

"Well, this new kid Sarge has got me with is ten times worse."

"Wow."

"Yeah, he's a rookie in our precinct but his TO broke his ankle playing racquetball the day before we went to California. Sarge didn't think anybody else could handle him."

"Renzulli said he was thinking of splitting us up anyway when we got back, at least till his TO got off desk duty," Eddie shared. "So our timing was pretty good. But this kid? He's a joke."

"This weird cross of too eager and too timid when we actually get into something. Can't wait to go, doesn't bother to plan ahead or think of what might happen—and then he freezes as soon as he jumps out of the car. And his driving—"

"Don't even start him on the driving. Jamie let him once, last week, just over to the precinct after they made a collar like three blocks away. It took him about four days to stop talking about it," Eddie cut in.

"Makes me miss _her_ driving, and that's saying something."

"And yet you still won't let me drive the Mustang," she said, crinkling her nose.

"Anyway, Eddie got a much better deal," Jamie said. "She's with Greene."

"Good guy, good cop," Eddie said. "Eating habits much more in line with my own. And he's about the only one in the house who doesn't care who I'm dating—he's got a new baby and that's all he wants to talk about."

"What about the people who do care who you're dating?" Danny pressed.

Jamie shrugged, wanting to minimalize the attention they'd been getting since returning from their trip two weeks earlier. There had been plenty of it, but it was the last thing he wanted to talk about at home. "Hasn't been too bad."

"Really? Because they're even talking about it at the 5-4. Took a couple days for word to get around but now I still hear about it a couple times whenever I pass the squad room."

"Huh," Eddie said.

"Jack, can you go find your brother?" Linda said. "It's about time for us to get going too."

"Sean!" Jack shouted over his shoulder.

" _Go_ _find him_ , you nut, not blow everybody's eardrums," Danny grouched. "Get out of here."

"Anyway, I'm glad it's going well for you two so far," Linda said. "Jamie, good for you for finally getting your act together. And Eddie, we're so happy to have you."

"Yeah, yeah," Jamie huffed, but he sent Eddie a sideways smile.

"Thanks," Eddie said. "Today was great—except that next time, I'll have to catch Erin before she leaves and have her break out the baby pictures."

"Oh, you know, we can do that right now if you want," Danny grinned. "Let me just go—"

"The boys have homework," Linda reminded him with a smile. "And I think we'll have a whole lot more chances to entertain Eddie."

"Right, right. You got off easy today, kid. But next week—" Jack and Sean burst into the kitchen and Linda started to usher them all towards the door "—next week you might want to wear a helmet. I think you'll want something to pad the blows."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: The current east coast snowstorm makes a nice backdrop to see how work is going now that our favorite partners aren't riding together anymore. Enjoy!

* * *

 _Tuesday, March 14_

"Remember when we were little and snow was exciting? I wish it was still like that. Now it's just a big pain in the ass."

"I grew up in Buffalo," Kara Walsh replied. "Snow was never exciting."

"Aw, really?" Eddie said. "That's so sad. I loved snow when I was a kid. School was canceled, sledding, hot chocolate…"

"Nope. I think I had three snow days in the entire six years I lived there. It took a really big lake effect storm to close school." Kara leaned her head back against the cinderblock wall and lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "I really hope we don't have to go out in this."

"The rest of the city is closed down," Eddie said unnecessarily. "But we had to go and pick a career that doesn't take snow days."

"Somebody's got to put up traffic cones for all the fender bender idiots who don't listen to the travel warnings," Kara pointed out.

"Wouldn't life be so much easier if everybody had just a little bit of common sense?" joked Kara's partner Rigetti as he slid to the floor across from the two women.

"We'd be out of a job," Kara said.

"But we could be home, sleeping in our beds like everybody else, and wake up and just enjoy the snow all day instead of camping out here."

"We know why _you_ want to be home in bed all day," Kara said, nudging Eddie with an elbow.

Eddie rolled her eyes. Kara and Rigetti were among the few people at work who didn't annoy her lately; Eddie knew their jabs were meant to be funny, unlike the truly rude comments she'd gotten from most of the other cops at some point or another.

"Where is he, by the way?" Kara asked. "What, did he not get called in for extended tour?"

"No, he did," Eddie said. "He's probably somewhere with his rookie, re-teaching him all the snow emergency procedures."

"Thompson? God, that kid's a mess," Rigetti said.

Alex Marshall, a beat cop who'd graduated from the academy in Eddie's class, stepped around Rigetti's outstretched legs to get to the coffee machine. "If it were up to me, Thompson and Reagan would be dealing with all the shit calls we're going to get once the sun comes up," Marshall said over his shoulder. "God knows Thompson needs the practice. What's wrong with your boyfriend, Janko? He's had him for two weeks and the kid still can't get a sentence out without stuttering when he's on a call. Or is it a critical part of Reagan's curriculum to shag his rookie?"

Eddie glanced at Kara and didn't dignify Marshall's comment with a response.

"No, seriously," Marshall continued, turning around with his cup of coffee. "Maybe that's the problem. If Reagan has sex with the kid then maybe the training will stick a little better."

"If that's how it works then maybe _you_ should've slept with Reagan, Alex," Kara snapped.

"Yeah—might do you some good to remember your training every once in a while," Eddie added.

Marshall shook his head and snorted as he passed them again to leave the kitchenette. "Hey, when I make detective this summer and you're still walking a beat, we'll see about how it worked out for you to sleep your way up the ladder." He shot one last look at Kara and Eddie before disappearing around the corner.

"Like he'd ever make detective," Eddie scoffed. "He's lucky he survived probation year."

"Jackass," Kara muttered.

"Can't believe anyone still cares," Rigetti said. "Most people have shut up about it, Janko. It's just those last few single guys who're jealous of Reagan since he gets to go out with you."

"Oh, you know, that definitely explains all the pointing and whispering in _our_ locker room," Eddie grumbled.

"They're jealous of _you_ because you're going out with Reagan. The prettiest people always end up together—what?" Kara said in response to Eddie's sideways look. "So I'm married—still got eyes."

Matthew Greene, Eddie's new partner, slinked around the corner and assessed the three officers slumped against the wall. "Who pulled Marshall's tail?"

"Joint effort," Rigetti said, pointing two fingers at Eddie and Kara.

"Did he say something again?" Greene asked. "My vote is we keep him running out on calls all day and we hang out here and drink coffee."

Rigetti squinted at him. "I thought you gave up coffee."

"I did," he said.

"But then he had a baby," Eddie finished for him.

"Alaina had to give up caffeine while she was pregnant," Greene continued. "So I did too, you know, in solidarity. But after twenty-four hours of labor, well, I gave up giving up caffeine."

Kara sighed and swirled her coffee cup. "Yeah, Eddie, if we have to resort to the pregnancy diversion, I'm not going as far as giving this up."

Eddie let out an unimpressed laugh. "I would put in for a transfer before I asked you to give up caffeine. Anyway, I've got a hook now," she joked bitterly. "I could walk the beat in any precinct I want."

"Who's got a hook now?"

Eddie looked up and saw Jamie propping a hand against the wall as he smirked down at her.

"Don't worry about it," she told him. "Where's Thompson?"

"Answering the non-emergency line the next ten times it rings to make up for the fact that a little while ago, he snapped at a caller that she'd just have to wait and hung up on her rather than explaining _why_ the plows haven't gotten to her block yet."

"Oh my God, seriously?" Kara snorted.

"And that was _after_ he got an attitude and asked what the woman was doing outside at 3:30am in the first place."

Kara shook her head. "Jamie, you're a saint. I would've had him answering phones for the entire day _and_ triple-checking every piece of paperwork I've filled out for the last month."

"Wow," Greene said.

"Yeah, are you sure you shouldn't be up there babysitting?" Rigetti added.

Jamie shook his head. "Short of ripping the phone out of his hand, what can I do?"

"You might want to write him a script," Eddie suggested.

"Or make him copy _I will not be rude to callers_ five hundred times," Kara offered.

"He doesn't even realize that he's being rude, though," Jamie sighed, throwing up a hand in defeat. "He's completely clueless as to how he comes off. Honestly I should just be glad that he's talking at all. Routine traffic stop yesterday and the driver was a good-looking woman—but not even _that_ good-looking," he added with a wink at Eddie. "And it took him sixty full seconds to ask for her license and registration."

Eddie shook her head. "I have no idea how he's still a cop."

Jamie sighed and let his feet slide out from under him until he was sitting next to Eddie with a few inches of space between them. He helped himself to a sip of her coffee and winced; she liked it sweeter than he did. "He's a good kid," he said. "Smart on paper and technically he did okay at the academy. But if he can't get over his whole socially awkward bit, well, I can't see him going anywhere as a cop."

"Just don't let him do anything stupid that gets you hurt," Eddie muttered, low enough that the others could pretend they didn't hear.

"You seen Sarge recently?" Greene asked. "He say when we can get out of here?"

"We've only been here for two hours, Matt," Kara reminded him.

"The blizzard warning doesn't end till midnight but hopefully we'll get relieved before then. You guys should, at least. Part of me wants to volunteer Thompson to stay a few extra hours but that means I'm stuck here too."

"If the storm is as bad as they're predicting, it may not matter—we'll all be stuck here anyway," Rigetti pointed out.

"Sleepover at the precinct!" Kara whooped. "And hey, I know which detectives keep booze in their desks."

Eddie lifted her knees to her chest and rested her extended forearms on top of them as she looked at her phone. "This says we should start accumulating two to three inches an hour pretty soon."

"God, Alaina will kill me," Greene muttered.

"The baby's what, three months now?" Kara asked. "That's about when mine started sleeping longer. Six-hour stretches at night. It gets easier."

"Hey, Reagan!"

Jamie leaned to his left to see why Renzulli was calling for him from down the hall. "Yeah?"

"Come over here and give us a hand, would you?"

Jamie glanced at the other three and flicked his eyebrows at Eddie. "Duty calls."

"What do you want to bet Thompson screwed up another phone call?" Rigetti chortled.

"I swear, Maldonado's next pool should be guessing how much longer Thompson will make it," Kara added. She glanced sideways to gauge Eddie's reaction; Eddie stuck her tongue out at her.

"Maybe after March Madness wraps up. I've got the Tar Heels again this year—they better not screw me over this time," Greene muttered.

Renzulli rounded the corner balancing a large baking sheet. The officers quickly yanked their legs back so he wouldn't trip as he plowed through the narrow kitchenette entrance. "Hey, what are all you slackers doing? You gonna guard the pies or something? There's more trays. Go help!"

"Pies?" Rigetti questioned as he and the others got to their feet.

"Yeah—it's Pi Day," Renzulli said, as if it should be obvious.

"Pi Day?" Eddie flattened herself against the wall as Jamie and another officer passed with more trays of miniature single-serve pies.

"March fourteenth? Three point one four?" said Sergeant Anderson, bringing up the rear. "The wife teaches high school geometry and the math department was going to have a Pi Day party for the kids. But school's already canceled so you all get them instead."

Greene started collecting random things off the small round table so there would be room for the pies. "So you bring them here at 4:30 in the morning?"

"Carol didn't want to drive once the snow got bad so she brought 'em as soon as the last ones were out of the oven," Anderson explained. "She's been baking since yesterday afternoon. There's about four hundred mini pies here, some apple, some berry, and I don't wanna have to tell Carol they were wasted, so start eating."

Eddie pushed her way to the counter and helped herself to a berry pie. There were no plastic forks left in the silverware mug, so she grabbed a flimsy knife and broke through the crust. "What?" she said, sensing Kara and Rigetti's eyes on her. "You heard the man. Can't let the pies go to waste."

Renzulli shook his head at her. "Walsh, Rigetti, standby in case the officers responding to the accident on Irving need any assistance. Reagan, go tell Thompson that it's possible to hang up a phone without the whole precinct hearing the slam. And you two," he said, pointing at Eddie and Greene, "don't eat yourselves sick during the snow emergency, alright? Soon as the sun comes up we'll probably need you out on the street, too."


	4. Chapter 4

_Wednesday, April 19_

With another long, frustrating tour finally over, Jamie changed into his street clothes as fast as he could and rushed out of the locker room. He had a couple of errands to run before heading over to Eddie's, and he knew she'd want a nap before her midnight shift. Their window for dinner would be short yet again.

"Hey! Reagan!"

Jamie paused for a moment, squeezing the crossbar of the door in his hand to release his irritation before he turned around. "Yeah, Sarge?"

"Come here. I wanna talk to you."

Jamie offered a grimace that he hoped could pass for a smile and followed Renzulli into his office.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Just wanted to check up on you. Haven't gotten the chance to chat in a couple weeks. How's Thompson been lately? Better?"

Jamie shrugged. "About the same. He's getting a little better at talking to people, which is good."

"Yeah, yeah, great. So listen," Renzulli rolled. "Miller, Thompson's old TO, should be back in action by the end of next week but I'm thinking of keeping Thompson with you. You've got a better—you're a little more _understanding_ than Miller. I think Thompson needs that."

"Okay," Jamie shrugged. He wasn't exactly fond of the kid but he didn't mind him. It took so much mental energy riding with Thompson that he never had time to dwell on missing Eddie, at least not in the middle of tours. And why switch things up again when at least on some level, the arrangement was working?

"At least till the end of his probationary period," Renzulli continued. "But that's not what I wanted to tell you. Applications for the next sergeant's exam open on May 1st and close three weeks after that. And I think you oughta think about putting in."

Jamie frowned. "The next sergeant's exam?"

"Yeah. You're not riding with Janko anymore, so what else is holding you back? It's high time you start looking to move up, don't you think?"

"Uh, Sarge, it has nothing to do with Janko. I'm happy where I'm at." Jamie offered the well-rehearsed line—it had been true at one point, and he really did like the work of patrol, but it wasn't lost on him that without Eddie in the car beside him, he didn't quite look forward to each tour the way he used to.

"Taking the test doesn't mean you'll be off the beat for good," Renzulli pointed out. "The test ain't till next January, and even after scores come back it's not like you'll be promoted right away. And hell, I was on the street with you for two years after I got promoted. Plus, with your years on the job, as soon as you're promoted you'll be up to a six-figure paycheck. Might come in handy when you and Janko decide to start popping out babies. Just fill out the application, would you?"

Jamie's phone chimed in his pocket—probably Eddie adding to the small grocery list she'd already sent him. He reached for it but didn't read the message in the middle of the conversation. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Sarge. It hasn't even been two months yet. But I'll think about it."

"Think, think, think. Stop thinking for ten seconds, Harvard, and just get it done. Like I said, nothing will change for a long time anyways, except you'll have to study." Renzulli met Jamie's eyes with a sly smile. "If you don't, I'll have to give you a rip for insubordination."

"What, this is an order?"

"Take it as a _very_ strong suggestion. Now take this and get out of here."

* * *

Forty-five minutes later Jamie let himself into Eddie's apartment and inhaled the scent of a distinct mix of spices.

"Chili?" he called.

"Hello to you too," Eddie said, gliding out of the kitchen. She wore one of his blue t-shirts over dark leggings, and Jamie couldn't imagine anything better.

"Hi," he replied, leaning down to capture her lips with his own.

She smirked at him and returned to the stove. "Easy tour?"

"Yeah, nothing exciting. How about here?"

" _Very_ stressful day," Eddie said. "Napped, got a workout in, did laundry—and now I had to satisfy a craving. Did you grab cornbread mix?"

"I did." He fished the box out of the grocery bag and accepted the mixing bowl Eddie handed him. "Glad to see you survived."

She sighed and made a face. "Really though, it sucks working opposite shifts all the time."

"I know."

"And don't even pretend you like patrol _half_ as much, riding with somebody else."

Jamie chuckled. "You already know that. Did you know you're almost out of eggs?"

"What? Dammit," Eddie groaned. "I should've had you grab some."

"We'll just spend tomorrow at my place."

"Oh yeah—finally a free day at the same time." Eddie grasped his arm, spun him in place, and stepped closer, pressing him back against the countertop. "Got any big plans?"

He shrugged dismissively. "Probably just stay in bed all day with a hot girl."

"Did you have someone specific in mind? Because _I_ was thinking about going shopping for new running shoes and then hitting happy hour somewhere." She let him catch a glimpse of her teasing grin as she turned back to the stove.

Jamie grabbed her hips and pulled her backwards against him. Holding her in place with an arm around her middle, he said, "Really now? Because I've never known you to turn down a day in bed, especially after an overnight."

"If that's all you're offering…"

"And I'll make breakfast when you get back from work," he added, rolling his eyes over her head.

" _That's_ what I was looking for." She wriggled around and kissed him before pushing off his chest.

"Breakfast in bed," he continued. "Maybe something with strawberries, whipped cream…"

"Yeah, how's that cornbread moving along, sport?"

Jamie chuckled and turned back to his project. A minute later, with the cornbread in the oven and the chili simmering on the stove, Eddie grabbed a beer for Jamie and a glass of water for herself. She unpacked the rest of the two grocery bags Jamie had left on her kitchen table as he sank into the couch and searched for the Yankees pregame.

"Hey, what's this?"

"Huh?" he said without looking away from the TV. "The chocolate bar? That's for you."

"No, this packet. Sergeant's exam application?"

"Oh, yeah, Sarge gave me that today. He wants me to register to take the next one."

"Really? Are you going to?"

Jamie shrugged as Eddie settled beside him, flipping through the stapled paperwork. "He pretty much told me that I have to."

"It's not his choice, though, Jamie. Do you want to? I thought you still wanted to stay on patrol."

"Part of me does. But part of me has figured out that riding with you every day really _was_ a big part of why I looked forward to each tour so much."

"And?" she pressed. "Even since we've stopped riding together—you've complained about Thompson some, because he's an idiot, but I've never heard you so much as mention that you're unhappy with patrol itself."

"I'm not. I really do love it. But things here" —he waved a hand between himself and Eddie—"have changed for the better now that we finally realized we would be gaining more than we'd be giving up, and—"

"Once _you_ realized," Eddie interrupted.

"Yeah, sure," Jamie agreed absently. "But it's as good a time as any to see if the same thing could be true at work. And honestly, it's a slow process and I'll probably still be on the beat a year from now. So it's a good idea to get things moving. I mean, I like patrol, but I probably shouldn't stay there forever."

Eddie's eyebrows knitted together. "Jamie, none of those sound like compelling reasons. And if you're not really committed and motivated, then you won't put in as much effort as you'll need to if you want to do well."

"Studying won't be that much of a problem for me," he said.

"Oh, right, you're Mister Harvard Genius Lawyer Boy."

"Something like that," he grinned.

Eddie shook her head and looked away from him—anytime he laughed she wanted to too, but goofing around wouldn't get them anywhere right now. "Look, if we're being honest, I think you should do it. I think you do great work where you are but with your brain and your talents and your personality you'll be an excellent sergeant. I won't say you're _wasting_ your talents on patrol but a promotion will open up a whole new world for you and you'll still be close to the streets—I think you'll wind up loving it."

"Once I get through the damn test. You know, I promised myself I'd never put myself through another one of those."

"But if you're really happy where you are right now then maybe wait till next year or the year after," she continued, ignoring his comment. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to. But Jamie, you get so caught up in the status quo—you forget to think about the great possibilities that could come up if you agree to let things change. You and I, that was a good change. And the sergeant's exam, I think that will good too, whenever you decide to do it."

Jamie nodded, digesting her little speech.

Eddie huffed impatiently after the moment of quiet, and she slapped the application packet down onto Jamie's lap. "I meant all that. I really did. But for once in your life, Reagan, would you just listen to Renzulli and me and sign up for the damn test?"


	5. Chapter 5

_Bonus chapter today so Eddie can deal with her judgy mom at the same time as I'm dealing with the judgy doctor who will wonder why cheerios, napkin shreds, and the kitchen sink come out of my child's cast when it gets removed (she's having one of her 3 casts replaced today, so she'll have a whole new one for her favorite game of Stuff the Cast!). Enjoy! -Sandy_

* * *

 _Monday, May 29_

"Eddie. Eddie. Hey, Janko!"

"What?"

"Why so quiet over there? Are you falling asleep? You need me to drive?"

"Nice try."

"Guy's gotta give it a shot," Jamie chuckled. "What's going on?"

"Debating whether I should turn around and just drive us to prison because prison might be easier than this."

Jamie frowned. "How long's it been since you saw your mom?"

She shrugged and glanced over at him before returning her eyes to the road. "I went home for Christmas. Thanks to you we got that day off and I had no excuse. Before that? I don't know, maybe a year and a half."

"But you talk to her."

"Yeah, because we've fooled ourselves into thinking that a _How was your week_ text every Friday morning is the hallmark of a good mother-daughter relationship."

"It's something."

"It's four texts back and forth once a week. She probably copy-pastes them—it's always the same. When she called two weeks ago, that's the first time I heard her voice in months. It's the first time I told her we're dating."

"Wait, really? You didn't think it was worth mentioning back when it happened?"

"You don't get it. We don't actually _talk_ to each other. It's a formality. _How was your week? Good, yours? Fine. Glad to hear it._ If she's feeling really sentimental she'll say _Love you_. The end. It's a nice arrangement because it makes her feel like she's being a good mom and it saves me from the lectures—she hasn't approved of a single choice I've made in my adult life."

"What do you do when you're with her? What did you talk about at Christmas?"

Eddie squinted at the road. "Josh," she muttered.

Jamie snickered. "Really?"

"Yeah. She never met him but she found out his title at his company is _executive director_ and told me to marry him right then—said it would balance out me being a cop so I could actually live her idea of a nice life."

"So maybe I shouldn't tell her I'm also a cop?"

"She knows you're a cop, Jamie. She knows all about you—we were partners for three years. But—"

"So you _do_ talk about me," he smirked.

"Oh, don't get all full of yourself. I don't remember if she knows about the Harvard lawyer thing so that might be something to keep to yourself. She'll question your sanity, giving up that kind of money to be a cop."

"Does she _know_ who my family is?"

"She wouldn't care. It's all about money and status with her. Since everything with my dad, I've questioned her sense of right and wrong as much as his—it was like she was pissed to find out about the whole thing, but really she was angrier about him getting caught."

"So…what do you want me to say?"

"I _wanted_ you to say we had other Memorial Day plans," she said through gritted teeth.

"Come on, we couldn't lie to your mom. And I want to meet her! Don't worry, I'll be sweet and charming—she'll love me."

"Like that'll work," Eddie groaned.

"Well, it worked on you, didn't it?"

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

"Sweetheart!"

Eddie grimaced at Jamie and let go of his arm so she could embrace her mother. "Hi, Mom. Uh, Mom, this is Jamie. Jamie, my mom."

"Lena Janko. Great to meet you."

"You too, Mrs. Janko."

"Lena, please. Oh, come on in! Two of the neighbor couples and a few people from my office will be here any minute."

Jamie smiled to himself at the similarities he immediately saw between Eddie and her mother. Physically Lena was a little smaller and obviously her sense of style involved a higher price tag than Eddie's, but their eyes lit up the same way when they smiled, and Lena's entire face was an aged version of Eddie's. But it was also the way Lena carried herself, with her emotions painted on her face and enthusiasm radiating off her skin—for a moment he wondered if this was the same prissy, disparaging woman Eddie had told him about.

"So, Jamie, you're a police officer like Eddie. What do your parents do?" Lena asked as she led them into the large house.

Jamie glanced at Eddie, trying to hide his amusement. "My dad is the police commissioner in the city."

"Oh, that's right! You did tell me that a while back, didn't you?" Lena smiled at Eddie and looked back at Jamie. "I told Eddie how lucky she was, being partnered with the commissioner's son—the opportunities she'd get! Oh, and now that you two are _dating_ …" She dissolved into an expectant sigh.

Eddie sighed too, but hers was one of exasperation. "Mom, how many times have I told you it's not like that? Jamie's dad is one of the most honest people you'll ever find. He'd never show favoritism like that."

"Perhaps not directly, but it really is who you know, sweetheart. Oh, look at that—my boss is here. I'll be right back."

She rushed to the front door. Eddie turned to Jamie and groaned loudly once Lena was out of earshot.

"Oh, calm down," Jamie said. "You weren't this worked up when you met my family the first time."

"I was, actually, but I'm better at hiding it when my mother isn't involved."

"Where's she work again?" Jamie asked to change the subject.

"This company that handles PR stuff and advertisements for people who are running for political office. She started there after—she was bored at home and her friends all—she needed something to do. It's been good. She's met new people who, you know, don't hate us."

"Makes sense."

"It's not like she needs the money," Eddie rambled. "Even with everything my dad made sure we'd always be okay. I told her she should try volunteering or something but no, her kind of good deed is buying a thousand-dollar seat to a silent auction gala…" Her voice trailed off as Lena came back into the kitchen, leading a well-dressed fifty-something couple.

"My daughter Edit and her boyfriend Jamie," Lena said, gesturing to each. "Sweethearts, this is my boss, Mike Ross, and his wife Jenny. She works in the office too."

"Call me Eddie," Eddie quickly interjected.

"I've heard so much about you, Eddie," Jenny said.

"We expect Jamie to be appointed police commissioner down in the city a few years from now, follow in his father's footsteps," Lena said proudly, as if she'd known Jamie his entire life.

Jamie felt Eddie shrink against his side as Lena said it. "Got a few promotion exams to pass first," he shrugged.

"Quite impressive, the work you all do. Cops, I mean. In this climate, to choose such a career—noble."

"Why don't we head out back? I've got beer, appetizers—and I really want to see that cake, Jen," Lena said. "Eddie, Jenny just makes the _best_ cakes. Anytime there's a birthday in the office, oh, it's wonderful. I always tell her she should start her own bakeshop. She could get a show on TV, be famous, have lines out the door every single day…"

"Oh, Lena," Jenny blushed. "It's just a hobby, really."

Lena ushered them all to the back patio and quickly ran to the front door to greet the next guests. Soon there were fifteen or twenty people, all of them strangers to Eddie, milling around and snacking while Lena's boss grilled burgers. With each introduction, Lena's stories got a little bigger—Eddie became an NYPD "undercover operative" who single-handedly took down sex trafficking rings every other Thursday, and Lena called Jamie a training officer while playing up the responsibilities that the title entailed. Jamie stopped trying to correct her when he realized it was useless, and instead he just smiled and nodded and tried to keep a hand on Eddie at all times lest she jump out of her skin.

After they finished their meal, Eddie grabbed Jamie's arm and dragged him behind her into the house.

"What?" Jamie asked.

"I just need a break for a minute," Eddie panted.

She desperately clawed at the cap of a beer until Jamie took it and twisted it open for her. "It's not _that_ bad."

"She's so awful—saying how proud she is when everything she's proud of isn't true."

"Hey, I _am_ the best TO in the NYPD." He gently tugged the beer away from her mid-chug. "What is this, your third? Fourth? You keep this up and I'll have to drive your car home."

She pulled her hand free and lifted the bottle to her lips again, but she hesitated and lowered it to the counter. "You'd like that, wouldn't you."

He wagged his eyebrows a couple times. "Hell yeah. You know what? Finish that one. Have another. Let me go grab that bourbon the neighbor brought."

Eddie closed her fist around a handful of his t-shirt. "Don't even. You don't let me drive the Mustang, I don't let you drive the Porsche."

"I'll let you drive the Mustang when we get home, as soon as you're sober."

"I _am_ sober, and you're _not_ driving home."

"Good, because I wasn't actually going to let you drive my car."

"What're you kids doing in here?" called Lena's neighbor as he wandered into the kitchen. "Tired of hanging out with the old folks?"

"No sir, just throwing out our trash," Jamie said.

"Great. Now Eddie, you're going to have to tell us how you saved all those hostages in the restaurant from those crazy gunmen. Insane, really. You must have so many stories."

Eddie groaned and dropped her forehead against Jamie's arm.

"I was there too, and I can tell you, it was—ow! What?" Jamie frowned at Eddie and rubbed his arm where she'd pinched him.

"We'll be out in a minute," Eddie said to the neighbor.

The man walked away and Jamie shot Eddie a questioning look.

"My mom doesn't know you were there. And she doesn't know that that's what made Josh—I didn't exactly tell her all the details. If she thought a so-called quality guy broke up with me because of my job, she'd never let me hear the end of it."

"Come on, we went over this before," Jamie said. "Some guys are turned on by what you did. And I'd say I'm quality. Way higher quality than _Josh_."

Eddie sighed and picked up her beer and Jamie's hand. "Let's go back out there. Just don't judge me too hard for the version of that story that I'm about to tell."

They pushed through another hour of stories and cake before the other guests started to excuse themselves. Despite their efforts to do the same, Lena kept drawing Jamie and Eddie back in until they were the only ones left. They helped bring in the last of the dishes and then stood awkwardly at the kitchen island, waiting for their chance to duck out.

"Uh, Mom, thanks for having us but we've really got to get going," Eddie said.

Lena turned around from the sink and leaned across the island to grab Eddie's hand. She frowned at her fingers. "Sweetheart, you need a manicure. I meant to tell you earlier but I forgot."

"I'll add it to my to-do list."

"And highlights. Your hair is so pretty when you take it lighter in the summer."

"I haven't highlighted my hair since college."

"You did! Two summers ago—"

"I didn't. We've really got to go, Mom."

Lena sighed in resignation. "If you just took care of yourself a little bit more, Eddie…"

"Jamie, do you think I'm pretty?" Eddie barked.

Jamie's eyes widened and his gaze flicked between the two Janko women. "Most beautiful girl I've ever seen." He unconsciously flinched as he stopped talking, as if he expected a physical blow.

"But don't you think if she—just because you're a _cop_ doesn't mean you should—" Lena started.

"Good _bye_ , Mom." Eddie dug into Jamie's forearm and pulled him behind her.

"I love you, sweetheart!" Lena called. "Nice to meet you, Jamie! Come back soon!"

"Love you too, Mom," Eddie groaned over her shoulder.

"So—am I driving?"

"You wish," Eddie spat.

"Any incidents of road rage and I'll have to write you a ticket. I'm a very important police officer in the big city."

Eddie shot him an irritated look over the top of the car before she ducked into the driver's seat.

"Really, though," Jamie said as he buckled his seatbelt. "Your mom seems nice. A little misguided, maybe, but nice."

"Misguided? She's not a tenth grader who skips class to smoke behind the gym. She's an almost sixty-year-old lady who thinks her _cop_ daughter needs to have perfect nails all the time and lies to her friends to make them think her life is more impressive than it really is. The lying—you think she would've learned by now. That's what cost her and Dad all their _old_ friends."

"Really? Because I thought it was the stealing money. I wouldn't think the lying was nearly as big a problem as that."

"You're _not_ funny, Reagan."

"Sorry. I'm just saying. Cut her some slack."

"Why should I? She doesn't cut me any."

"Because sometimes when it comes to parents, the kid has to be the bigger person. It sucks but it's true. She wants a relationship with you, and she's lost enough else…"

"Please don't get all preachy about this, Jamie. She's been like this my whole life and it got a million times worse when my dad got arrested. She's not going to change."

"I'm not trying to be preachy."

"Sure sounds like it."

"It's just the same thing I said about your dad a few years ago, when you first went to visit him. The value is in the effort they're making to have a relationship with you. They aren't perfect but they're your parents. They obviously love you, even if you wish they were better at showing it."

"Can you please just stop? You're right but I hate it when you're right about this stuff so let me just be annoyed, at least until we get home."

"Okay."

"I think my phone just buzzed. Is it Hailey? I told her I was going home today. She's probably checking to make sure I didn't stab my mother with one of her damn decorative butter knives."

Jamie dug through her purse until he found her phone. "It's Mother Dearest," he chortled, reading the contact name on the screen. "She says _Jamey_ —spelled J-a-m-e-y, why would she think that's how I spell my name?— _Jamey seems like a nice boy. He is very good looking. I might really like him for you if he wasn't just a cop_. Wow. Harsh."

Eddie's head fell back against her headrest for a moment before she looked back at the road. "Oh my _God_. I can't with her. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea, letting her meet you. I'm so sorry."

"You never thought it was a good idea. You started trying to get out of the barbeque about two seconds after you told her we'd go."

"Now do you see why? I wish she could just be happy that I'm happy for once, instead of always worrying about everything else."

"Maybe her idea of happiness is different than yours."

"It is. That's the problem."

"What do you want me to reply?" he asked.

"How about _fuck you_?"

"Eddie."

"Seriously. It's a lot easier than typing out a whole paragraph about how you're pretty much the best thing that's happened to me, ever, and if she can't see that then I'll take you over her any day and so she can go on and have a nice life."

"You're right, the first thing was shorter."

Eddie sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Jamie."

"For what? You're not responsible for what your mom says. She didn't know I'd read it."

"She probably did," Eddie countered. "She knows I'm driving. It's the exact kind of manipulative bullshit she's pulled my whole life."

"Well, whatever. You saw her. So that means you've filled your quota of mommy-daughter bonding time for the next what, two years or so? You survived. I've got a thick skin. It'll take a lot more than that to scare me off."

"Damn, there goes that plan," Eddie snorted. "Between my driving and my mom I really hoped you'd walk out on me tonight."

Jamie laughed. "You should know by now it'll take a lot more than that, shorty. It'll take a _lot_ more than that."


	6. Chapter 6

_Saturday, June 3_

The question came out of Jamie's mouth before he could even process the weight of it.

For him it wasn't completely out of left field; the idea had crossed his mind before, but he hadn't thought of a way to present it to Eddie. And he'd never intended to ask her so soon. It had only been three months, after all.

But unlike anybody else he'd ever known, Eddie smashed through his careful guardedness and made him almost _impulsive_. Until now, though, that pseudo-spontaneity had translated into unplanned trips to their favorite cheesecake place for lunch on mutual days off, not anything as enormous as—

"Moving in together?"

"Yes." He watched her carefully to gauge her reaction, terrified that he'd freaked her out, and it occurred to him that he should probably say something so that it looked like he had actually put thought into this. He _had_ —this just wasn't how he planned to tell her. But he'd walked in on her browsing apartment listings online and she'd told him her lease was up soon and—it had just sort of slipped out, because he was Mr. goddamn Spontaneous now.

"The timing is perfect, Eddie," he started.

"But—but Jamie, _me_ , move in with _you_?" Eddie sputtered. "The timing is—? You don't think it's a little soon?"

"Eddie, I love you more than I thought a person could ever love somebody else. I don't think it's too soon. I already want to spend every single free minute with you, so…"

"I love you too, Jamie—"

"And think about it. Not counting when one of us has a midnight tour, how many nights do we spend apart anymore? Maybe one every week or two, at the most."

"Yeah but—"

"I _want_ to live with you and if your lease is up then it works out perfectly. You move into my apartment at the end of next month because let's face it, how were you planning to find a place so fast anyway? My lease is up in November so we can think about renewing or looking for a new place then."

"But Brooklyn?"

"Half your clothes are over there anyway," Jamie continued.

"No they're not. And what about everything else? How do you plan to squeeze in two apartments' worth of stuff? You'd drown under that much crap."

"We take what we like from each of our apartments, and we can store everything else at my dad's until we find a bigger apartment or decide what else to do with it all."

Eddie frowned. "It sounds like you've thought this through."

Jamie smiled sheepishly. "Of course I have. I was going to think of a smoother way to bring up the subject, though. I just figured you might—it might weird you out to talk about it right now so I was going to wait a little longer. But with your lease—"

"Yeah, you figured right," Eddie muttered.

"So no pressure, babe," Jamie concluded. "And you've still got a little time to think about it. But I love you, you love me—"

"Okay, Barney the dinosaur."

"And I know it hasn't been that long but this has never been some casual thing, at least not to me. I've been serious about us since before we left California, from the second you said you'd be my girlfriend. Even before that, if you want to get technical. And I think you have too. So I'm ready whenever you are."

"You've got a lot more experience in the serious relationship department than I do," Eddie pointed out. "I _am_ serious about you but I've never really been about anybody else and—like, doesn't it change things? To be on top of each other all the time without anywhere to escape if you need a break? And—logistically, you know, having to deal with money and stuff—"

"I have _never_ needed a break from you being on top of me," Jamie smirked. "I could use a little more of it, in fact."

She rolled her eyes and reached across the countertop to smack his arm. "I'm serious! It's not like I've ever _really_ needed space from you since we started dating, because you're really the only person I ever want to see, but just in case I do, I know we can go back to our separate houses and have some alone time if we need it."

"That's what you're worried about? Eddie, when you want to be alone and think, you get out of the city and just drive for a couple hours."

She squinted at him. "How'd you know about that? I haven't done it since—right after the restaurant robbery."

"Partners," Jamie reminded her. "And if I had your car, I'd do the same thing."

"Is that what this is? All just a ploy, like if we live together you'll be able to get your hands on my baby? Not happening, Reagan."

"Oh, come on," Jamie moaned dramatically, humoring her. "I let you drive the Mustang yesterday. It's only fair."

"You let me drive it a mile home from the bar and somehow, even when you were drunk off your ass, you wouldn't stop telling me to stay within five of the speed limit."

"I was not drunk off my ass."

"You were too drunk to drive!"

"That's what I let you think so you'd quit bugging me about driving my car. Think about it. This morning? Hangover free." He held his hands out, palms up, like he was offering indisputable proof.

She shook her head to clear it. "Okay, but back to the living together thing. I mean, Jamie, what do we—how do we—"

"How do we what?"

"Split everything up! How do we fit all my things into your tiny little bedroom?"

"My bedroom's bigger than yours," he pointed out.

"Or, like, rent? I can't just mooch off you—"

"You wouldn't be _mooching_ off me, Eddie. We're both adults who make our own money and hell, we already buy each other's groceries all the time—"

"There's a difference between grabbing some milk and paying rent."

"So we split it fifty-fifty, if that'll make you feel better. We can take turns writing the check every other month. Or I keep paying rent and you cover utilities and food. Or who cares, because between the two of us it'll be so much cheaper to only have one apartment and really what's it matter, since people combine their finances when they get married—"

" _Married_?" Eddie nearly shouted.

Jamie's eyebrows flew up as he realized what he'd said. "Yeah—eventually, you know, down the road. Not right now. God, Eddie, it's only been three months, why would you suggest something like that?" He offered a hesitant smirk and hoped that the deflection did its job.

She narrowed her eyes again, as if she was assessing him, and adopted a flippant tone. "I could marry you someday."

His face pinched up with his unspoken question.

"You know, if it turns out that we can live together without you driving me up the wall."

"So is that a…yes?" Jamie asked carefully.

Eddie sighed, draining the humor from her face. "It's a big decision, Jamie."

"It is. You know where I stand on it, so it's up to you now. If it'll make things easier I can wait until you get kicked out of here and spend a week in a parking garage before I ask again."

Eddie's eyes jumped back to his face, landing on his impish grin.

"You know how much it turns me on to bring in homeless girls from parking garages," he continued.

"You—"

"Beat you to it," he said, and he bit his lip to contain his smile. Every so often Eddie still made jokes about that parking garage girl, the one who'd made her jealous enough to admit her feelings for him, and he laughed at his success of stealing another such jab from her.

"Never thought _you'd_ be the one joking your way through a serious discussion, Reagan," she muttered.

He finally forced his mouth into a more neutral expression, though the smile still danced in his eyes. "Okay, I'm done. Just think about it, hmm?"

"I will," she promised quietly.

He peered at her from across the counter that had separated them for most of the conversation. "Do—do you want to go take a drive?"

She pursed her lips and glanced around her apartment. The novelty of Jamie's frequent presence had long worn off, and after a couple weeks of spotlessness her living room had returned to its normal state of slight disarray. She wasn't gross by any means, but she had a higher tolerance for random clutter within her space than Jamie did. "I told myself I was going to fold last week's clean laundry today before I do anything else."

Jamie dug into his pocket and dangled his car keys in front of her. "I'll worry about the laundry. You can even take my car."

With a look of mock disgust, she took his keys and loudly dropped them onto the breakfast bar. "Why would I ever want take a drive in _your_ car? I've got a damn Porsche."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Because what's a Jamko fanfic without an injury/hospital scene? Read, review, enjoy! –Sandy

* * *

 _Tuesday, June 13_

Four staff members glanced up from the nurse's station as the small blonde police officer blew in through the ambulance entrance like a tornado. She stopped just clear of the entryway and brushed loose wisps of hair away from her face as her wide eyes darted around the ER.

"Can I help you, officer?"

"Yeah—the cop that came in here, Reagan, where is he?"

"Let me check for you," the clerk said, returning her attention to her computer screen. Eddie fidgeted impatiently. "He's in bed 38."

"Where's that?" Eddie demanded.

"Down this hallway to your left. There are signs with all the bed nu—" She cut herself off; the lady cop was already gone.

Eddie scrambled away and practically skidded around the corner toward beds 31 through 40. By the time she reached the correct room she was panting, but more from her rising panic than her quick sprint through the halls.

"Jamie!"

He looked up from the newspaper Sudoku on his lap and pushed himself up on the hospital cot. "Hey! What are you—"

"Oh my God," she cried, rushing to his side. "What did you do?" She grazed her thumb over the rectangle of gauze taped to his hairline, just left of the center of his forehead.

"It's nothing, babe. Thompson and I, we were chasing down a perp who lifted two cellphones. The perp turned on me and we got into it a little bit, cut my head open. The bleeding stopped a while ago so as soon as the plastic surgeon comes to do the stitches, I should be good to go."

Eddie's face twisted with concern as she glanced over the rest of him, looking for any other injuries. Someone had wiped the blood from his face but not very well; she could still see dark red residue in his eyebrow, in the curve outside his nostril, and at his jawline. One eye would soon be black and he'd split his lower lip. He'd taken off his uniform shirt and belt and it was hard for her to tell, but she thought there might have been a little more blood crusted into the collar of his dark undershirt.

She found his hand and threaded their fingers together. "Where _is_ Thompson?"

"Sent him back to the house to deal with the paperwork."

"He didn't even have the decency to wait with you?"

"He had the decency not to disobey a direct order. I wanted him out of here. He was getting on my nerves. If he hadn't knocked into a homeless woman then he wouldn't have taken so long to catch up, and the perp may not have been able to take any swings. It's not a huge deal; I mean, it could happen to any cop on a busy street like that. His driving, though—that about did me in."

"His driving?"

"We were just a few blocks from here so we didn't wait for an ambulance. He dropped me off in the RMP."

"He _what_? Why didn't you call a bus? Jamie!"

"It would've taken twice as long to wait for one," he explained. "I was never in life-threatening danger. There was just a lot of blood."

Eddie spun and huffed into one of the chairs against the wall—the one that didn't have Jamie's shirt draped over the back. "God, Jamie."

"How'd you get here, anyway?" Jamie asked. "I mean, this—this is why the deal was that if we stay in the same precinct, we're almost never on the same shift. How'd you get away?"

"Not hard to get away from paperwork detail. Greene's home today with his baby and her double ear infection. Sarge told me you came here but it wasn't over the radio and God, Jamie, you weren't answering your phone so I had to see if—"

"I'm _fine_ ," he insisted. "This isn't even big enough to call in the Reagan family cavalry. And sorry, I haven't seen my phone since, uh…actually, don't even know where it ended up."

"I bet your dad already knows. He may not have come down here but he's probably getting updates every fifteen minutes straight from the doc."

"Probably," Jamie agreed.

Restless, Eddie got up again and began to pace along a track parallel to the bed. "I'm going to kill that kid next time I see him. Is it too late to send him back to Miller? Or get him transferred? Or, hey, he's still on probation! Just fire him!"

Jamie's eyebrows knitted together in the middle of his forehead. "It's not his fault, Eddie."

"Maybe not, but if you had a better partner then maybe you wouldn't have had to engage a perp one-on-one. I would've never—"

"I know, but Eddie, you're the best partner I ever had. You can't hold everyone else to your same standard—it's impossible and unfair." He smirked at her as she processed his words. "Come here." He caught her arm as she passed and tugged her into his embrace so that her torso leaned awkwardly over the bed.

She sighed and buried her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling his familiar scent. "I hate it," she mumbled. "I know you try to stay safe but it's like I can't trust Thompson to have your back, and this…"

"You think I like you riding with Officer Sleep-Deprived Baby Daddy?" Jamie scoffed against her hair. "I know the man basically mainlines caffeine but still, one extra-rough night at home and he takes a split second too long to react and then you…"

Eddie strained against Jamie's arms until he let go and she could stand up straight. "But Greene's got the experience to make good decisions and the awareness to not do stupid things like bowl over bystanders while he's chasing a perp. He's a good cop with the right instincts. Can't say those things about Thompson, clearly."

"I'm not going to request a new partner just because of a little cut. You and I both had worse when we were riding together. Remember when we got car-bombed and you got kidnapped all in the same week?"

"Don't even act like it's the same thing," she groaned. "There's a difference between being targeted by a madman and just having an idiot rookie partner."

"You were my idiot rookie partner once, you know."

"I was never an idiot."

"Yeah, that's true."

Eddie sighed and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyelids. Jamie took in the sight of her for the first time since her arrival. Her shirt pillowed out where it was coming untucked and her face was framed with strands of hair that had come loose from her normally immaculate work bun. The color was slowly returning to her cheeks but her previous pallor was still obvious.

He was the reason she'd gotten so worked up, he knew, and it sent a pang through his chest that was ten times more painful than the throbbing gash on his head. He had never been able to stand seeing Eddie upset, and since they started dating it had only gotten harder—and when he felt responsible, it made him sick to his stomach.

"Let's talk about something else," he suggested. "Come here. Sit with me."

He scooted over as far as the narrow bed allowed, which was only a couple of inches. Eddie smiled weakly at the effort and leaned her hips back against the angle where the bed's elevated head flattened out. Jamie draped his arms around her and intertwined his hands to rest against her far hip.

"Something else like what?" she asked.

"Your birthday."

"What about it?"

"Well, I heard from your mom and she's coming down, so—"

" _What_?"

"I'm kidding, relax," Jamie laughed, leaning sideways to dodge the fist she aimed at his shoulder. "But I've only got eleven days to plan you the best birthday ever."

"Are you counting down? Oh shoot, you know what? It's too late to request a couple days off so we could use those free flights from San Diego. I wouldn't mind spending my birthday in San Francisco or somewhere."

"Should've thought of that two weeks ago," Jamie lamented.

"It's fine. I'll be happy with a nice dinner here, something fancy and Italian."

"Or we could bang in sick for three days and eat something fancy and Italian in San Fran."

"My God, Jamie Reagan suggesting skipping work?" She laid a cool hand on his forehead, gently, to avoid the bruise growing out from under the bandage. "You must've _really_ hit your head today."

"Nah, my head's fine," he said. "My heart, though—different story."

"Yeah? What's wrong with your heart?"

Before he could make her laugh with some goofy, sappy line about lovesickness, a nurse knocked and came in. Jamie dropped his hands and Eddie pivoted to stand next to his head as the nurse spoke.

"Good news on two fronts, Officer Reagan," the nurse said. She nodded at Eddie without taking her eyes off Jamie. "May I?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She can hear everything."

"Well, your head CT is clear. Now, even though you don't have any major symptoms, we're going to go ahead and treat you as if you've got a mild concussion, because it's possible you do. So no strenuous activity, modified duty for two to three weeks, and during that time make sure you watch for any of the symptoms we talked about—nausea, vomiting, dizziness, loss of consciousness. You'll get a list of everything to watch for with your discharge paperwork, and you'll need to follow up with your primary care doctor on the concussion in about two weeks. And the other good news is that the plastic surgeon will be down in about ten minutes to stitch you up. After that, you'll be good to go."

Jamie squeezed Eddie's forearm. "See, Eddie? No big deal. Nothing to worry about." He thanked the nurse as she walked out.

Eddie exhaled, finally releasing the tension that had tied up her stomach since the moment she heard the words _Jamie_ and _hospital_ in the same sentence. "Good. Anything worse and I would've wrung Thompson's neck myself."

Jamie let her comment hang for a moment before he grasped at her hand. "Eddie," he said, his voice taking on a childlike quality. "Will you hold my hand while they sew up my head?"

She read his face, his sparkling eyes, and realized that he wasn't completely serious, but she obliged him anyway with a nod. "I'll even kiss the boo-boo."

Jamie touched his fingertips to the swollen split on his lower lip. "This one too?"

"Pushing your luck there, buddy, don't you think?"

Eddie did hold Jamie's hand the entire time the plastic surgeon stitched up the three-inch cut, and the discharge paperwork finally came through a little while after that.

"Where to?" Eddie asked as he settled into her passenger seat. "Your place? Mine? Do you need to drop by the precinct first? I hope you know that your modified duty will have to wait a couple days. We're both banging in sick tomorrow and I'm not going to let you out of my sight."

"I should grab my stuff from my locker, check on Thompson."

"Okay, and then we'll go to my place."

"Why not mine? It's about to be yours, too, in a month."

" _Mine_. You and your eighteen stitches bought me an extra day to organize and start packing."

"Eighteen stitches mean I get eighteen kisses, right? Because I didn't even get _one_ yet…"

"What, are you planning on counting? Keeping track?"

"If it comes to that."

Eddie reached across the center console and smacked his knee a couple times. "Just wait until we get home—it won't."


	8. Chapter 8

_Tuesday, July 25_

Eddie crossed her arms and slowly spun in place to look around her apartment. Except for three more boxes by the kitchen and the various wallets and car keys littering the counter, it was completely empty now. It was surreal, like she'd never been in this room before—almost as if her six years here hadn't even happened at all.

"Hey."

Jamie's voice pulled her out of her fog and she turned to look at him as he walked inside with Danny, Jack, and Sean.

"Sad to be leaving?" he asked.

"Not really, actually," she shrugged, looking around again. "I thought I would be. I mean, the whole time I was packing—but now that it's empty, no."

"Hey, kid, quit being all sentimental and grab this last box, would you?"

"Yeah, Danny," Jamie sighed. He shot Eddie a smile before turning around.

"Looks like they've got it, guys," Eddie said to the boys. "So you can help me order—what kind of pizza will everyone eat?"

"Well, Jack wants his own whole pepperoni, but Dad will eat anything and I like bacon," Sean answered.

Eddie nodded her approval. "My kind of man."

" _You're_ the one who'll eat a whole pizza by yourself, Sean," Jack grouched.

"Oh, there'll be plenty for everybody. Your uncle Jamie will only eat two pieces, tops. Will Nicky eat bacon?"

"I'm actually not going to hang around for dinner," Nicky said, breezing into the apartment.

"No? You got big plans?"

"Nothing _big_ , but a couple of my school friends are in town this week helping with this summer camp thing on campus and tonight's the only night they have off from the kids."

"Oh, sounds fun. You're not working the camp?"

"Nope—too busy with my internship at Mom's office. I couldn't take off for the camp if I want to be able to go to the beach."

"Ah, makes sense."

"Did you find out yet if you can go?" Sean asked Eddie.

"To the beach? Yeah, Jamie and I both got the week off but we'll have to come back on Friday instead of Sunday because my partner's wife is having a surprise party for him that night."

"Aw, really? But Saturday is when we have the beach baseball tournament."

"Maybe if Aunt Erin has to pitch instead of Uncle Jamie you'll have a chance," Jack teased.

"He's got a point," Jamie said from the doorway.

"You're a pitcher?" Eddie said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Best whiffle ball pitcher Bay Ridge ever saw," he boasted.

"Oh, just whiffle ball."

"Where's our dad?" Sean asked.

"On a phone call. Brace yourselves, Nicky and Eddie, because he says next time somebody moves, you two are definitely _not_ going to be the ones packing the car."

Nicky gathered her things from the counter. "Well, good luck with that, Eddie, because I've got to go. Still on for lunch on Friday, right?"

"Of course."

"Good, I want to go back to that Thai place. I've been craving it ever since last time."

"Sounds like a plan," Eddie agreed.

"Lunch?" Jamie asked.

"Once a week all summer," Nicky said.

"Seriously, you haven't noticed?" Eddie asked.

"Oh, Jack, did you ask yet?" Nicky said before Jamie could respond. "Now's a good time, before your dad gets back."

"Not yet," Jack muttered.

"Bye, Nicky," Sean said.

"See you, Nick. And you," Jamie continued, turning to Jack. "Talk to us about what?"

"It's nothing," he said. "I asked Nicky something but she said it was better for you guys to answer but—it's nothing."

"Come on, you know you can come to us with anything," Jamie prodded. "We'll kick Sean out. Eddie too, if you just want me."

"No, I already know what it is," Sean said loudly. "Jack has a _love_ question."

"Sean!" Jack cried.

Eddie started to laugh at Sean but she managed to stop herself, contorting her face into an expression resembling confusion so she wouldn't embarrass Jack more.

"What's going on?" Jamie asked.

Jack's gaze shifted uneasily between his uncle and Eddie and he geared himself up to speak.

"He thinks he loves Lilly!" Sean yelled.

"Dude, I _will_ kick you out of here," Eddie warned.

"You know how Lilly got into the leadership thing for freshmen at Amherst?" Jack started with one more dirty look at his brother. "Well, the program starts next week so that it finishes before regular freshman orientation and so—she's leaving on Sunday."

"And he wants to—"

"Sean!" Jamie snapped. "Not the time. Why don't you go downstairs." It wasn't a question.

"I'll be quiet," Sean pleaded.

"Go," Eddie said.

Pouting, Sean dragged himself out of the apartment.

"We're going out for dinner on Saturday with her family but I'm taking her out, just us, on Friday and—and—how did you guys know when you loved each other?" he finally managed.

Jamie smirked at Eddie. "I knew I loved her about twelve hours after we started dating. Our flight home from that conference was canceled and we went to the zoo to kill the time, and seeing her there—I just knew. It was this overwhelming thing, like I'd never loved anybody else that much in my life."

A look of mild panic spread across Jack's face. " _That_ soon?"

Eddie frowned at Jamie. "I didn't know that."

"So you didn't tell her?" Jack clarified.

"Not right away, no," Jamie said.

"The thing with us, Jack," Eddie said, "is that we had feelings for each other for a while before we actually started dating, but we never acted on them—so once we did, once we really acknowledged it, then it was pretty fast from _feelings_ to _love_. But that's definitely not how it usually works."

Jamie raised his eyebrows at her. "How fast?"

"Not twelve hours," she scoffed. "But fast. A week or two, maybe. I probably first let myself think it after my first Sunday dinner with you guys."

"You had to meet my family before you knew you loved _me_?"

"More like I had to get over that hump," Eddie explained as she shifted away from his jabbing elbow. "It freaked me out a little, meeting your family, and it took up all my focus until it happened—but once it was over and I didn't have to worry about it anymore, the only thing left was love."

Jack still looked confused and uncomfortable. "How did you— _tell_ each other? I think that's my problem. I'm pretty sure I love Lilly but…"

Jamie snickered and tugged Eddie's arm, bringing her closer to him. "I do _not_ recommend the Eddie Janko method."

"What happened?"

"She said it in her sleep."

"I did not. I was awake."

"Hardly," Jamie argued. "She got back late after a swing shift, maybe three weeks after we got together, and I was on early that day, so when I went back in the bedroom to say goodbye she just sort of rolled over in bed and went, 'Love you too, bye.'"

"I did not say _too_."

"You did. And it made me stop for a second and think, because I was like, _what? Did I just say it? Am I missing something? Should I say it back right now?_ "

"Did—did you?" Jack said.

"No—he laughed at me and whacked me with a pillow," Eddie groaned. "And he forced me to _actually_ wake up, and he asked if I was drunk or something. And then he said it back right before he left."

"See? You were asleep."

"Only half-asleep. You're _loud_ in the morning, Reagan."

"Anyway," Jamie laughed, turning back to his nephew. "You and Lilly have been together for what, six months now? Eight? So if that's how you feel then be honest with her. I'd definitely say it's best to talk about it in person before she moves to school."

"Yeah—I'm not excited for the distance thing," Jack admitted.

"Hey, Amherst is only three hours away, and with you at John Jay right here in the city, you'll get to see her when she's home for breaks even if your breaks don't line up," Eddie pointed out. "If you love her and she feels the same way, you'll figure out a way to make it work."

"Really? Because Dad doesn't think it will. He says high school relationships hardly ever last through college."

"Your dad isn't exactly a hopeless romantic," Jamie said. "He's trying to prepare you for the chance that it won't work out. That chance is definitely there, but like we're saying—tell her how you feel and give it a shot, because if you don't, you'll regret it."

"That's what I think I'm going to do but I have never…" Jack's voice trailed off as the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway echoed through the open front door. A moment later, Danny and Sean stomped inside.

"Hey, what's this I hear about everybody getting to put in their pizza requests except for the one guy that did eighty percent of the work?" Danny barked.

"Eighty percent of the yakking, maybe, but not eighty percent of the actual work," Jamie said.

"No need to get technical," Danny shrugged. "Are we out of here or what?"

Eddie sighed heavily. "Yeah, this is it."

"We'll do one more walkthrough before you turn in the keys tomorrow," Jamie said, sensing her sudden apprehension.

"Yeah, you can save all your emotional stuff till then," Danny said. "For now—pizza!"

* * *

Eddie locked the door with a sigh and turned around to lean back against it as she raked a hand through her hair. Danny and the boys had stayed for the entire Yankees game, joined by Linda in the third inning when she got off work. Eddie was tired and it had been a long day—it had been a long two weeks, really, as she slowly transitioned all her things over to Jamie's. And now that that part was over, she still had to deal with the daunting task of unpacking.

"Hey."

She looked up to see Jamie duck around the corner from the kitchen. Even in the dim light she could see the familiar glint in his eyes, the one that made her pulse throb deep in her stomach.

"Hi," she said, bringing both palms down to rest flat against the door.

"So." He stepped towards her, one corner of his mouth curling up into an adorable lopsided grin. "Welcome home."

She looked over his shoulder into the apartment, coyly refusing to meet his eyes. "Home," she repeated. "That's got a nice ring."

"Doesn't it?" He closed the gap between them with one last stride and planted his hands against the door on either side of her head. "Home, just us…"

"And a shit ton of stuff to unpack." She grinned at him as she pushed him away and bobbed under his arm.

"Right this second?" he whined, pivoting to follow her. "Because that bed in there isn't just _mine_ anymore, it's _ours_ —and it's just waiting to be broken in."

Eddie stopped at the first unsealed box she came to and idly flipped the top open. Before she could think of another snarky comment, Jamie ended the game by shoving her backwards onto the couch. She laughed as he caught himself and eased his body down until his weight almost crushed her, and she deepened his hungry kiss.

After a minute of shirts riding up and hands exploring, Eddie arched her head back to break the kiss. "Jamie," she breathed, "did you mean it earlier? You've loved me since the zoo?"

"Mm-hmm," he hummed, shifting to kiss down her jaw.

Her hands never stopped moving, and she grasped the back hem of his t-shirt and tugged at it. "And you decided the best time to first tell me was after you woke me up with a pillow?"

Jamie stopped what he was doing and raised his eyebrows at her until she managed to get his shirt off him and he couldn't hold her gaze. "No. That wasn't the first time. You just missed the first hundred times—you were asleep," he teased.

Eddie huffed out a laugh and heaved him against the back of the couch with her elbow so she could stand up, his shirt still balled up in her hand.

"Eddie," he groaned.

"Let's go!" she said, glancing at him over her shoulder. "We've got a bed to break in, don't we? The couch can wait till tomorrow."


	9. Chapter 9

_Thursday, August 10_

The sound of a glass placed against the granite countertop reverberated through the music playing in Jamie's right ear. He jumped and yanked out the single earbud as he turned around in his seat.

"Sorry," Eddie said. "Didn't mean to scare you."

He frowned and blinked at her. "What are you doing up? Did I—I'm sorry."

"No, you didn't wake me up," she said. "I was thirsty." She tapped her glass against the counter again and moved to the fridge to fill it up.

"Oh. Well, I'm just—"

"Studying?"

"Yeah."

"At three in the morning?"

He inhaled deeply, like he'd need that much air for his reply. But he paused and just sighed, "Yeah."

"On vacation?"

"Danny and Pop both told me to give it a rest for the week but tonight I still need to—"

Eddie glided to the kitchen table and reached across him to get a look at the open page of his enormous study binder, effectively cutting him off. "You don't have to pretend. I know you've sneaked out of bed every night this week."

Jamie deflated completely. "You do?"

She pressed her lips together into a flat smile and nodded. "You didn't go back to sleep last night until five."

"I'm sorry. There's just so much and there's no way I'll be able to get through it all—"

Eddie slumped into the chair across from him. "Jamie. You will. You'll be fine. You've still got five months before the exam. And this stuff?" She tipped her chin at his binder. "Response situations? DWI? You've been on patrol for seven years. You don't think you know this by now?"

"It's a different context for the sergeant's exam," he started, but he shut his mouth when Eddie narrowed her eyes at him.

"Please take a break. We're on vacation. Tomorrow—no, _today_ is our last full day." She grabbed his hands and stood up, trying to tug him with her.

"Eddie, I can't get behind and if I can't study during the day…"

" _Jamie_."

Her tone finally cut through his distraction, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. "Let me finish this page," he tried weakly.

"Nope. You've lost enough sleep to this thing. It'll still be here in a few hours." She slid the binder away from him and marked his page with a neon sticky note before clapping the enormous thing closed. "Come on."

Jamie pushed himself off his chair and stretched as he shuffled towards the stairs. Leaving the binder on the kitchen table, Eddie sidled next to him and took his hand.

"Let's go to the beach."

Jamie dipped his head to make sure he'd heard her correctly. "The beach?"

"Yeah. We're up so why not?"

In response he held his phone up so she could see the time: 3:16am.

She dismissed it with a shake of her head and tugged Jamie down the stairs alongside her. "Come on! It'll be just us. There hasn't been enough of that this week."

"You're not going to try to seduce me on a public beach, are you?"

Eddie made a face. "God, no. Never understood the appeal. I do _not_ want sand in those places. But it's such a nice night…" She dropped his hand as they emerged onto the back patio of the beach house and turned slowly as she looked up at the clear sky.

"It is."

She smiled at him and he was completely captivated by the way her eyes sparkled in the bright moonlight. He was almost sad when she looked away to lead him to their private walkway to the beach.

The sand and the ocean spread out expansively in front of them, lit only by the moon and dim lampposts at the end of some of the private boardwalks. Eddie broke into a run, encumbered by the shifty sand and by the dead weight of Jamie attached to her arm. She let go of him and spun backwards, taunting him as she high-stepped blindly towards the water.

And then she fell on her ass.

Jamie caught up a second later and found her sprawled on her back, cackling hysterically. "Easy there, Janko," he said through his own laughter. "You okay?"

She nodded and accepted his outstretched hand to pull herself up. "Damn," she commented, arching backwards to brush the sand off the back of her thighs. "See? Sand in all the wrong places."

Jamie chuckled and offered his arm for balance until she was satisfied that her legs were clean. Then he spun her by the shoulders so he could brush off the back of her oversized t-shirt. "This shirt is _not_ going back in our bed," he told her. "It's covered."

"Then it's only fair you lose something too, mister." She twisted around him and before he knew what was going on, he was on his knees in the sand with his arms pinned behind his back.

"Um, what seems to be the problem, officer?" he said innocently.

"Unfair suggestions of clothing removal," she said, and she tipped him forward as she twisted him so that he landed on his side. "But you know what? It looks like I can let you go with a warning."

Jamie adjusted in the sand and sat up. "Okay, okay, we're even," he said, and he clapped the sand off his hands before stretching one up to her.

Eddie took it to help him up. "Let's just go for a w—"

Her words dissolved into a giggly squeal as Jamie yanked her down and rolled back to catch her body with his. "You're the worst," she said when she could breathe again, and she swatted playfully at his chest.

"And here I was about to say I love you," Jamie said, somehow managing to keep his face serious when the grin threatening his lips became almost uncontrollable.

"God, we're both going to need a shower," she complained, standing up and brushing off.

Jamie held out his hand again. "Please?"

"No way, lambchop. Fool me once…"

Smiling, Jamie got to his feet and pinched his t-shirt at the shoulders to shake off the sand. The spaces in his mesh gym shorts were filled with it and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get it all out. Eddie, wearing only a long shirt over underwear, didn't have that problem so she groaned impatiently as he kept at it.

"Come on, Reagan, we're burning daylight here."

"Hate to break it to you, Eddie—"

"Don't be a wiseass."

Laughing, he took her hand and they walked east on the damp sand where only the furthest-reaching waves could tease their feet.

"So. You've almost survived your first Reagan family vacation," he said. "Thoughts?"

Eddie smiled wistfully. "I love it. It reminds me of when I was little and we'd go to the beach with my cousins, except here the adults haven't been angry-drunk all week."

"That's because Danny's just angry," Jamie said. "And after the family beach trip in 2008, he's not allowed to be in charge of the booze anymore."

"You're lucky to grow up in a family like this that's genuine, and not all built on a lie."

"Yeah. I hit the lottery in the family department, that's for sure."

"Almost makes me want to do the whole kid thing just because I know they'd win the family lottery too."

"Kids, huh?" Jamie said.

"Do you want them?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Someday."

Eddie wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, well, makes sense, since you've got the easy job."

"The easy job?"

"As opposed to the job of growing a human for nine months and pushing it out of a very small hole."

Jamie cringed. "Yeah. I'm not jealous of that at all."

"I mean, have you ever seen it? Did they make you watch the birth video in sex ed? God, it scarred me. Even if there wasn't other stuff to worry about, you know, like my career—I have no interest in doing that."

"You watched a birth video in sex ed?"

"You _didn't_?"

"I went to Catholic high school," he reminded her. "Our sex ed was straight out of _Mean Girls_ but minus the free condoms. 'Don't have sex or you'll get pregnant and die.' No videos."

Eddie burst out laughing. "Did you really just quote _Mean Girls_ at me?"

"What? It's a classic."

She shook her head. "Sometimes you still surprise me, Reagan."

"That shouldn't be the only reason, though," Jamie said. "It's what, a few hours of pain but at the end you've got a baby."

"But even once the baby comes, the dad's still got the easy job. Like, your body's never the same after you do that. And everyone expects the mom to be the one to make all the sacrifices with work and stuff. You know? I'd love to have kids, but I'd rather parent like a dad."

Jamie laughed a little at her logic. "That's all true, and it sucks, but for the record I've never known you to be the type to go along with other people's expectations."

Eddie swiped her free hand in front of her, fingers splayed, in a gesture of magnificence. "Eddie Janko, super-cop who fights crime by day and finishes all her paperwork in time to pick up the kids from daycare."

" _You_?" Jamie scoffed. "Finishing paperwork on time? I'd pay to see it."

" _That's_ your issue with that whole fantasy?" she chortled.

"Well, that and your last name."

"Hmm?"

"Wouldn't it be Reagan if you were fighting crime on the way to pick up our kids from daycare?"

"Who said anything about _your_ kids?"

Caught completely off-guard, Jamie sputtered for a response.

"I'm _kidding_ ," Eddie assured him. She lowered her shoulder and shoved him sideways. "You're basically stuck with me, Reagan. But see, _there's_ the problem! If we get married and I take your last name, it's like I can't call you Reagan anymore."

Jamie exhaled a combination of amusement and relief. "Why not? I figured you'd quit with that once we were dating, but here we are."

"Because it would be _weird_ if we had the same last name! And you still call me Janko, so what would you do? We'd be the weirdest married couple ever, walking around calling each other Reagan all the time."

"It wouldn't weird me out at all, actually," Jamie said. "I'd be too busy wondering how the hell I got lucky enough to change your last name in the first place."

"You think you're so smooth with the one-liners," Eddie muttered, but she was smiling.

"Hey, I got you this far, so now it's just a matter of making it official in the eyes of the law before you wise up and get yourself out."

"You're my boyfriend, Jamie, not a cult leader," she laughed.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't be the first," he murmured.

His words hung heavily in the cool air and Eddie paused for a second, second-guessing her instinct to respond with a smartass comment. But she wanted to steer the conversation away from that particular topic, so she went with her instinct anyway. "So. You're going to make me plan a wedding with my mom in the near future? And here I thought you loved me too much to put me through something like that."

"If she gets too out of line we'll set Danny on her, put her back in her place."

"You won't do it yourself?"

"Me? God, Eddie, she's not even my mother-in-law yet and I'm already on her bad side. But who cares what she thinks of Danny?"

"You're only _half_ on your bad side. She thinks you're cute. She just doesn't like cops."

" _You're_ a cop."

"You're proving my point."

"Yeah, well, we'll deal with her when the time comes." He slowed and looked to the houses lining the beach on their left. "How far do you think we've gone?"

Eddie stopped altogether and looked behind them. "A ways," she said. "It's nice, having the whole beach to ourselves."

"It is," Jamie agreed, yawning. "But we've got a whole bed to ourselves at the house."

"Please. This time every other night this week you were up studying at the kitchen table in the dark."

"Yeah, and so I've only gotten three or four hours of sleep on all those nights."

Eddie dragged her toes through the sand, considering.

"And I'm going to pick you first for my whiffle ball team in the morning—you don't want a fatigued pitcher, do you?"

"Fine," Eddie conceded.

Jamie draped an arm across her shoulders and they shuffled back in the direction of their house, retracing the footprints that the water had already washed away. And for a few minutes at least, Jamie didn't care that he wasn't studying.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: super super fluffy chapter for those of you who want a little more Reagan family scenes...just so we see something of our favorite couple in September before you all start to hate me for what's going to happen in October. ;) -Sandy_

* * *

 _Saturday, September 23_

Eddie counted off the guys leaving the men's locker room, knowing Jamie would take longer than just about everyone else coming off tour at the same time. When she was fairly sure he was the only one left, she rapped her knuckles once on the door and pushed inside without waiting for an answer.

"We went over this," Jamie said. "You don't have to barge into the locker room anymore—you can see me naked almost whenever you want."

"Funny," she retorted. "But that's not why I came to the precinct." She held out the garment bag she carried. "Put this on."

He took the bag and checked the contents—his charcoal gray suit and a baby pink dress shirt—before he assessed Eddie's classy navy dress. "We going somewhere fancy?"

She cocked her head and smiled. "Just a little birthday surprise."

"Birthday surprise, huh?" he said suggestively.

"Yes, but where we're going you'll probably want to keep it in your pants. Now hurry up or we'll be late."

Jamie watched her leave before trading his jeans and t-shirt for the suit. When he was ready he left the locker room to find Eddie leaning against the wall outside. She grinned and took his arm, and they ignored the good-natured catcalls and teasing as they left the precinct.

"I parked over here," Jamie said, nodding to the left.

"Yeah, but your car magically ended up back at home, and _I'm_ driving tonight," Eddie said, tugging him the other way.

"What? You moved my car?"

"My boyfriend's dad is the PC," she said. "I've got connections."

"And also my spare keys."

"Yeah, those too." She grinned at him over the top of her car before he folded himself into the passenger seat.

"Where are we going? Did you make us reservations somewhere?"

"Yep."

"Where?"

"You'll see."

"Can I guess?"

"Sure, but I'm not going to tell you until we're there."

"Come on, Janko, that's no fun."

"Yep, that's me. I just want you to have the worst birthday ever."

"You got to pick your own birthday restaurant _and_ mine? I don't think that's fair."

"Life's not fair, Reagan," she shot back. "You'd pick some cute little romantic restaurant but you wouldn't want me to spend too much money on you so it would be some mid-level place that puts more effort into the atmosphere than the food and you'd end up eating a damn salad and so _no_ , you don't get to pick the place, _I_ do. And so help me, if you order an entrée salad where we're going, I will walk out on you and you can take the subway home."

"Wow," Jamie said. "Didn't think my eating habits bugged you that much."

"Normally _I_ mind my own business about that stuff," she said pointedly. "But come on, I can't let you screw up your birthday dinner with cheap, mediocre food and _especially_ nothing that a rabbit would eat."

"Okay—now you're not being clear. If this place is fancy, are appetizer salads acceptable?"

Eddie snickered and pretended to ponder his question. "Soup is preferred," she decided. "But if you _have_ to get a salad then make it Caesar so you can give me the big Parmesan shavings off the top."

"A nice place with big Parmesan shavings on top of the Caesar salad," Jamie mused.

"Uh-oh, look out," Eddie teased. "Detective Reagan's on the case."

"We're heading north," he reasoned. "So can't be Palio's. El Romano, maybe? Belle Osteria?"

"What if this direction is just a decoy?" she said.

"You're _that_ determined to cover up where we're eating dinner?"

"No, not really. You'll know in ten minutes anyways."

It was actually closer to fifteen before Eddie found a parking spot and took Jamie's hand to lead him around the corner to the restaurant, an upscale Italian place that hosted at least one or two Reagan birthday dinners every year. Most recently they'd come here for Linda's birthday in early July and Eddie had loved it, so Jamie wasn't surprised at her selection.

Eddie smiled at the hostess, who simply waved them past. Jamie followed her through the crowded seating area, slightly confused, until he saw the huge rectangular table in the back.

"Happy birthday!"

Jamie just let out a groaning laugh as his entire family greeted him and glanced sideways at Eddie as she grinned.

"I _told_ you no big deal, no surprise party," he said, smiling.

"Family doesn't count," she said, pushing him forward towards one of the two empty seats.

"Yeah, she _wanted_ to throw you a party with the whole precinct," Danny told him.

"I would've, but you had to go and be all specific and tell me not to make a big deal out of your birthday," Eddie mock-pouted.

"Well, this is great," Jamie said. "All the people I want to be with."

"You seriously didn't know we were coming?" Nicky asked.

"No idea."

Nicky nodded at Eddie. "Wow. Good for you."

Eddie flicked her eyebrows in response. "I'll take my twenty bucks later, thanks."

"You guys had a _bet_?" Erin said incredulously.

"Seems like there's a whole lot of that when it comes to you two," Linda commented, flipping a hand back and forth between Jamie and Eddie.

"Mom, you should've _seen_ her," Nicky replied. "When she told me the plan a couple weeks ago she was so excited I thought there was no way she'd make it without telling him."

"Okay, I do have _some_ self-control," Eddie scoffed.

"And here I thought you couldn't keep secrets from me," Jamie joked.

"I usually can't. Hence the extra incentive." Eddie nodded at Nicky and rubbed her thumb against her fingers to indicate money.

"Well," Frank said. "We've already got bread and bruschetta on the way but you two look over the menu and see if you want to add anything before the waiter comes back."

"What was the thing we got on your birthday, Linda?" Eddie asked without looking up from her menu. "The zucchini frites? I want that again. It was so good…"

Jamie sipped the wine that already sat in front of him. "So _that's_ why you brought the whole family. More people means you can pick more appetizers."

"Or maybe I just thought you'd enjoy a nice birthday dinner with your family," Eddie said. "Oh! Did we get the fried mozzarella before?"

Jamie laughed at her and rolled his eyes just a little, unsurprised by her enthusiasm.

"I'll eat some of that if we order it," Jack said.

"How was your week at school, Jack?" Erin asked.

"Yeah, this one any better than the last?" Henry added.

"Definitely," Jack said. "Last week was awful—it's so unfair, how all the professors schedule big tests all in the same week. But at least it meant this week was way easier."

"Is that one class going any better?" Danny asked. "What is it—the sociology one?"

"I did better on that test than I thought I would. But my public administration class is still my favorite and I only missed one question on that test."

"Nerd," Sean muttered.

"Hey," Jack whined.

"No, come on, we're very proud of you," Linda said. "College can be a tough adjustment and you're doing really well."

"Yeah, Sean—you'll do well to learn how to work as hard as your big brother," Danny said.

"I work hard," Sean argued.

"Is that what you were doing last Sunday after dinner when you said you couldn't clean up because you had to work on a project?" Frank said. "Or is was that project completely on your cell phone?"

"I was making plans with my group," Sean insisted. "We had to figure out who was going to finish the script for the video we had to make."

"And did you?"

Sean shrugged. "We've got this one really smart girl in our group so we just let her do it."

"I'm sure you can contribute more than that," Frank scolded softly.

"I am. I'm in charge of setting up the camera for filming and stuff. And I'll help with editing it."

"You going to use that fancy camera you bought?" Nicky asked.

"Of course. And I've got this editing software now that'll make it really easy to cut the shots together and make it flow," Sean said, suddenly much more enthusiastic.

The waiter interrupted and Eddie ordered two more appetizers for the table to share. Discussion shifted to Erin's latest case, the prosecution of several hospital administrators for an elaborate insurance billing scam that had gone unnoticed for years, and then to Jamie's progress in studying for the sergeant's exam.

"I've never seen anybody so organized about studying when the test is still so far away," Eddie laughed. "He color-coded the online calendar we share, practically every minute of the day, and he's even planned the topics he's going to study, like, two weeks ahead of time."

"I have to make sure I get through it all with time to review again in the last few weeks before the test," Jamie said defensively.

"So you can't just read the stuff like a normal person?" Danny jeered. "You gotta go all Harvard on it, make it this big deal?"

"It is a big deal," Jamie said. "Do you have any idea just how much material they want you to know?"

"Yeah, yeah, they want you to memorize the whole patrol guide _and_ every single higher-up regulation anybody's ever thought about adding to the rules," Danny said, waving his hand dismissively. "We've heard."

"I'm quite glad to know there's at least _someone_ in my department who takes the sergeant's exam as seriously as they should," Frank commented. "If all the other candidates are working as hard as you are, son, we'll have a great pool for the next round of promotions."

"Don't get your hopes up on that last thing, Dad," Danny said. "The golden boy is a one-of-a-kind nerd."

"And you wonder why your boys aren't nicer to each other," Linda muttered.

"Come on, Danny, it's his birthday," Eddie said. "Let's take it easy on him."

"Okay, _fine_ ," Danny sighed, as if it would physically hurt him to follow her request.

"Hey, but don't worry," Eddie said to Danny, clapping a playful hand against Jamie's knee. "It'll all be fair game again tomorrow."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Because the things you love most about someone can so easily turn into the things that drive you crazy, and nobody is perfect—not even Jamko! -S

* * *

 _Saturday, October 28_

Excited energy buzzed through Eddie's body as she fumbled for the right key and finally managed to unlock her front door.

"Are you almost ready?" she called out. "We should go in like fifteen minutes!"

The living room was empty and she didn't hear a response from anywhere else, so she dumped her jacket and purse on a chair and pushed her way into the bedroom. Jamie hunched over his crossed legs in the center of the unmade bed, small stacks of paper spread in a half-circle around him.

"Jamie," she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "You need to get ready!"

He finally looked up at her, a focused frown on his face. "I can't go, babe. I'm four days behind, so much to catch up on—"

"What do you mean, you can't go?"

"Gotta stay here and study," he clarified, now talking down to his papers without so much as another glance in her direction.

"No! Jamie, we said we'd go to this party a month ago and—"

"And there are more important things than Halloween parties, Eddie," he interrupted. "I'm right in the middle of something. I can't afford to take that much time away from this right now."

"Oh, so you can't plan ahead for something that's been on the calendar for weeks, but you could afford to go for beers with your brother last night with five minutes' notice?"

"That's different," Jamie said. "Danny's dealing with that case with the two little kids who were murdered so he had a really tough week—"

" _Different_?" Eddie could feel her anticipation quickly dissolving into irritation, but she tried to control her voice. "I can barely get you out of the house one night a week lately because you're always _studying_ , but one text from Danny and you drop it all to go to happy hour? And _now_ you tell me you're too busy to go to the party we got invited to _a month ago_?"

"Danny needed to blow off some steam," Jamie said calmly. With his attention still on his lap, he didn't process just how unhappy Eddie was becoming. "I was helping out my brother. But I still have to prioritize, get back on track—it'll take all night anyway and I don't need to go waste three hours at some silly—"

" _Waste_ three hours? Doing something fun with me is a waste of three hours?"

"Of course not, Eddie, but if I'm going to take a break then it's going to be for something _really_ fun, not some party I don't even want to go to."

"What do you mean, you don't want to go? You said you did. You said you thought it'd be fun," she reminded him.

"Yeah, I said that, but—"

"Would you _look at me_ , please?" Eddie demanded. Her last shreds of self-control had evaporated now, and her tone clearly gave away her annoyance. "Seriously, you can't even take a break for _one minute_ so we can actually _talk_ to each other?"

He finally lifted his chin, though his eyes lingered on the paper in his hands for as long as they could until the angle of his head made it impossible.

"Since when do you not want to go?" she asked again, her voice quieter now.

"I never wanted to," he admitted. "But you didn't exactly leave me much choice, saying yes before you even asked me."

"Well, excuse me for thinking you'd want to go have fun with your girlfriend at a Halloween party."

"Eddie, I haven't cared about Halloween since I was about eight. It's just a commercial holiday to sell candy and let little kids have fun. I have no interest in getting drunk with a bunch of adults acting like children in tacky costumes."

"I love Halloween!"

"Fitting," Jamie muttered, looking back at his papers.

"What did you just say?" Eddie seethed.

"It's fitting that you'd like a kiddie holiday."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"It means you never seem to care that sometimes there are more important things than your idea of fun. You do this all the time, Eddie—drag me into things I don't really want to do without caring what I think."

"Yeah, because if I didn't make plans for us then all we'd ever do is sit around here doing nothing."

"Doing nothing? Does this look like I'm doing _nothing_?" He waved a hand at the study materials surrounding him. "Look, I never said _you_ shouldn't go. I'm just not. So go on without me. Have fun and I'll see you when you get back."

"God, Jamie, do you not understand the concept of a couples costume?" Eddie snapped. "I can't show up as Bob Belcher without Linda—that's stupid!"

"That's another thing," Jamie said, his own exasperation ramping up now. "I don't get why _I_ have to be the wife and you're the husband. That's just dumb."

"It's _funny_!" Eddie cried.

"Not really. _Bob's Burgers_ is a weird show to start with and it doesn't make it any better to dress up as the married couple with the genders backwards."

"I thought it was a good idea! And you said so too!"

"I was probably just trying to make you quit with the costume ideas. You went on about it for two days, Eddie—I'd had enough."

"Well, I didn't see you coming up with any ideas!"

"Of course not! Because I never wanted to go!"

"So why didn't you say that a month ago?" Eddie exclaimed.

"You never gave me the chance!"

"Please. You say _I'm_ childish but you can't even speak up for yourself until five minutes before? Great, just great. I'll never plan anything fun for us to do ever again, alright? But _tonight_ you are _going_. You _don't_ have a choice now so put the damn costume on, Linda Belcher!"

"I said no, Eddie, not that you understand that word."

" _No_? How about no more studying? How about no more goddamn sergeant's exam, Jamie, because you spend way more time with the study guide than with me!"

"Because _you_ thought I should go for a promotion! And you said you'd be supportive of this which is the _opposite_ of what you're doing right now."

Eddie's eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't you dare say I'm not supportive, Jamie Reagan. You couldn't do this without me! You wouldn't remember to eat or sleep or go to work if I didn't remind you because you never pay attention to anything else!"

"That's not true," Jamie argued.

"It is! Even when you do take time out of your _busy schedule_ to actually spend time with me, you're still studying! You think I didn't know what was going on when we were watching a movie the other night?"

"You fell asleep!" Jamie cried. "It's not like you were watching anymore so why does it matter that I wasn't either?"

"You woke me up when you used my _feet_ as a place to put your stupid _binder_!"

"Well, it was hard to use my own lap with your legs on it!"

Eddie crossed her arms over her heaving chest. "You know what, Jamie? This is stupid. If it's that much of a chore for you to actually spend time with me then I won't force you."

"It's not that I don't want to spend time with you, Eddie," he backtracked. "I just don't want do it at a party dressed up as a woman from a cartoon that isn't even funny."

"I—I thought you _liked_ that show."

"Um, no, _you_ do. I would never watch it if you didn't make me."

" _Make_ you? Is that all you think I ever do, Jamie? Force you to do things you don't want to?"

"Well, I just said, Eddie—it's not like you ever ask me!"

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm your girlfriend, not your mother. You're allowed to have your own opinions and actually _give_ them! _Without_ being asked!"

"That's what I did just now, and look how well it turned out," Jamie spat.

"Fine—in the future I'll make sure I ask your permission before I sign you up for anything that sounds like it might possibly be a little bit fun." Eddie stepped around the bed to the closet and started furiously rifling through her clothes.

"Not _permission_ ," Jamie corrected. "Just—just if I actually want to, or have time. What are you doing?"

"Figuring out a different costume," she snapped. "I can't go as Bob Belcher without Linda."

Jamie pressed his hands to his temples and let out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a frustrated groan. "No, don't," he said, and he unfolded his legs and started to gather up all his papers. "I'll just go."

Eddie spun on her heel and glared at him, clutching a folded set of pink footie pajamas. "No, you won't. If it's going to be stupid or boring or whatever, if it's _that_ inconvenient for you to actually do something fun with your girlfriend, then consider yourself uninvited." She shook out the pajamas and held the fleece up against her body by the shoulders. "I'm going alone, dressed as a baby, since that seems to line up with what you think of me."

Balling up the pajamas again, she stalked out of the bedroom before Jamie could stop her. He squeezed his eyes shut for a second until the slam of the bathroom door startled him out of a deep breath, and he stood up to follow. Suddenly exhausted, he dropped his forehead against the bathroom door as he spoke.

"Eddie. Stop it. I said I'll go."

"And I said you're not invited," she replied. "You're off the hook. Go back to your damn study guide."

He tried the doorknob, which was unsurprisingly locked. He jiggled it a few times anyway. "I _want_ to go."

"Great plan, Reagan, go ahead and lie to my face when I'm already pissed at you."

"One, not a lie. Two, I can't see your face."

"Too bad for you, because if you could then maybe you'd figure out that now's a really great time to _stop talking to me_."

Jamie exhaled and shut his mouth but he didn't leave his spot at the bathroom door. A minute later the door moved away from his head and he snapped up to catch himself before he stumbled forward.

Eddie stopped short just inches from him, surprised to see that he was still there. But she recovered quickly and shoved past him.

His shoulders fell as he spun to face her, but she ignored him as she moved around the apartment to find shoes that would fit over her footie pajamas.

"Eddie," he tried.

Finally she whipped around to confront him and the symmetrical pigtails high above her ears swung out in a way that would've made Jamie laugh any other time. "Why are you even out here?" she demanded. "Do you have time for this conversation? Are we on a clock? Shouldn't you be in the bedroom? _Studying_?"

"I didn't mean to—"

"Yeah, well, you still did." Eddie grabbed her purse and stomped her foot on the ground to push her heel into her shoe. "See you later. Happy studying, jackass."

And she marched out of the apartment.


	12. Chapter 12

_Saturday, October 28_

Jamie stood shell-shocked and anchored in place for several long moments after the door closed. Too many unrelated trains of thought rolled through his mind for him to decipher them all, and he couldn't even coordinate his body to open the door and follow her as one of the voices in his head screamed for him to do just that.

They hardly fought with each other, at least not as boyfriend and girlfriend. Before, when they were still partners, they'd had their share of work-related disputes, but the causes of those conflicts dissolved in San Diego along with their willpower to keep their relationship professional. Since then there had been minor disagreements, small annoyances, a couple instances of teasing taken too far—but Eddie was almost never offended and she didn't take anything too seriously; and Jamie was typically mellow and forbearing. Their personalities meshed in a way that let them balance each other out and, usually, bring out the best in each other.

In fact, Jamie could count on one hand the number of times he'd fought like this with _any_ girlfriend. Even his failed engagement to Sydney hadn't ended in flaring tempers and fireworks; she'd just slid the ring into his hand, quietly, in the middle of the night, and that was that.

 _Sydney_.

Despite what he'd told Eddie after that jumper call a year ago, the status difference between cops and lawyers wasn't the _entire_ issue there. Part of the problem, he remembered now, was that Sydney felt Jamie loved the job more than he loved her. It was all new back then, being a cop, and he had been looking into his brother's death, and she just hadn't _understood_.

That was part of what was so great about Eddie. She was a cop too. She knew—she knew the lifestyle, the dangers, the devotion, and she accepted all of it because it was hers too.

So why didn't she get that he _needed to study_?

Finally Jamie stepped to the couch and sank into it with the knuckles of his thumbs pressed into his eyeballs. Why would she agree that he should go for the promotion—and not only agree, but _push_ him to do it—and then yell at him for working to earn it? Why would she promise to be supportive and then _not_ be? Apparently, she'd been frustrated about this for a while—he knew her well enough to know that such a blowup hadn't just come out of nowhere. It took a lot to upset her.

It took _a lot_ to upset her.

God, was she right? It wasn't her problem. It was _his_. The last several weeks flashed before his eyes, but Eddie was conspicuously absent. Well, she was _there_ , but only in the sleepy goodbye kisses on the way out the door, in the harmless mocking of his self-discipline along with Danny at Sunday dinners, in the questions of Chinese food or subs because yet again neither one felt like cooking—

" _Shit_!"

He stood up again and patted down his sweatpants pockets, but his phone wasn't there. He wasn't even sure why he wanted it—what, was he going to _call_ her? As if she'd even answer the phone when she saw his name on the screen.

His mind started to race again as he uselessly circled the small apartment. Where was the damn party? He knew it was hosted by a friend of Eddie's, a girl she'd kept in touch with after they graduated academy together. She worked up in the Bronx, but did she live there? He couldn't remember; he didn't think he'd ever actually known. Had Eddie ever told him? Had she told him when he wasn't paying attention to her?

Again—didn't matter. If he showed up there it would probably just cause a scene, and in front of a roomful of cops, no less.

With a loud groan, Jamie flopped onto the couch again. He was right back where he'd started, with an angry, upset girlfriend and no idea how to fix it. He just knew that somehow he had to figure it out, and he didn't have long to do it.

Well, he could start by cleaning up the crap he'd scattered all over the bedroom. It wasn't like he'd get any more studying done tonight regardless. And while he did that, he could think about how the hell he'd take back his jabs at her tendency to make plans without his input. Attacking her for that was like attacking her very _essence_.

It was one of the things he loved about her, really. As long as he'd known her, she had dictated his social schedule. Even throughout their years of platonic partnership, she was the one person who drew out his more outgoing side. If it wasn't for her, he would've spent many more nights alone in his apartment with a beer and a baseball game rather than in a cop bar with her and their friends.

But as boyfriend and girlfriend they weren't limited to their old routines, spending time together only in public so they wouldn't accidentally slip past that thin line between professionalism and that _something more_ that they'd danced around for so long. And while Eddie still loved to go out for drinks after tours and hang out with all her other friends, Jamie was perfectly content spending time with just _her_.

That was the problem, though, wasn't it? That he hadn't been spending enough time with her. Like she'd said, even when they were alone together lately, he was rarely truly _with_ her. There was a big difference between a night in _with Eddie_ and a night at the apartment, studying while she went about her own business. And she was right—there had been too much of the latter recently without nearly enough of the former. He teased her all the time about being demanding, but really her expectations were perfectly reasonable. She deserved to be with someone who appreciated her, who valued her time and her company instead of taking her for granted.

There were solutions. He could fix the overall issue—they hardly ever worked the same shifts these days, so he could just study while she worked and focus on her when she was home. He'd go into that shared online calendar she loved to rag him about and rework things so he was never _supposed_ to be studying when they could instead be spending time together. He shouldn't have been treating her like an inconvenient obligation that limited his study time; it should've been the other way around. Maybe it would mean a little less sleep, but he could swing it so that his time was more balanced and _still_ earn the high score he'd need on the sergeant's exam to ensure a fair promotion as soon as possible.

But while doing all that would address the _overarching_ issue, it couldn't just erase everything he'd said in the ten minutes she was home. It would take something much more immediate and tangible than simply promising that he'd try to be a better boyfriend.

Food. It had always been the way to Eddie's heart, hadn't it? And just three or four nights ago she'd asked if he could make the Parmesan-crusted chicken she liked so much. It would've taken him fifteen or twenty minutes to throw together but instead he'd suggested they order pizza so he could get in an extra few minutes of reading about uniform inspections or some shit like that.

With all of his papers put away and the bed made for the first time in a month, he went out to the kitchen and started to dig through the fridge.

* * *

 _Eddie. I'm sorry. You're right, I have been a huge asshole lately. Please let me make it up to you when you get home_.

Eddie glowered at her phone screen before shoving the device back into her purse. She'd cooled off a little but seeing his text reminded her all over again why she was pissed at him—as if one night of attention and, she assumed, sex would make up for two months of distraction _and_ all the insults he'd thrown at her earlier. She wasn't naïve enough to think things would actually be any different in the morning.

She didn't _really_ blame him for his devotion to the test. Despite his initial hesitations, he'd thrown himself at it wholeheartedly, as she knew he would. He was a hard worker, a goddamn boy scout who couldn't half-ass anything like that. There was a reason people called him Harvard, for crying out loud—and it wasn't just that he went there. It was that in some ways, he'd never left.

She knew he genuinely didn't realize just how little quality time they'd spent together recently. He was just _that_ preoccupied. But recognizing that about him didn't make her any less frustrated, didn't make her miss him any less.

The sergeant's exam was two and a half months away. It couldn't come soon enough.

Without Jamie, the Halloween party wasn't very exciting. After making excuses for his absence to the first fifteen or twenty people who asked, she was utterly bored of it. She didn't want to be here anymore but she also didn't want to go home, where she assumed Jamie was still hunched over his study guide, oblivious, cramming in as much as possible before she got back. So she said goodbye to the hosts—their adorable couples costume, Woody and Jessie from _Toy Story_ , made her a little nauseous—and went out to Jamie's car.

The things he'd said echoed through her mind as she drove north into Westchester County, planting ugly doubts—not about their relationship, exactly, but about Jamie's true opinion of her. A small part of her knew it was just his anger talking in response to her fiery reaction to his party-skipping announcement. But she couldn't help but wonder if she was at least partially at fault for the recent distance. If she'd thought about herself less, tried harder to find things that catered to Jamie more than herself, maybe it wouldn't have been so difficult for him to put down the study guide for a couple hours every once in a while.

Seriously, though, what the hell? How had she not picked up on the fact that apparently Jamie didn't agree with her choices of TV shows or fun activities?

 _No_ , she scolded herself. She definitely could've handled herself better before storming out of the apartment, but Jamie was _more_ wrong. Perhaps it wasn't a healthy way to think, ignoring her own fight-fueling actions and deciding that he needed to be the one to apologize, but she thought it was more dangerous to let his words cut through her psyche and taunt her and make her wonder if _she_ should've been doing things differently since the day he brought home his study guide.

She heard her phone go off several times as she made her way up to Yorktown Heights, but she didn't check it until she pulled off into a gas station there. Apparently Jamie had learned from someone at the party that she was gone, and if she didn't at least let him know she was safe, he threatened to go out and find her.

 _Fine. Home in a couple hours. Don't wait up._

She hoped he'd listen but she figured he wouldn't. From here it would be an hour and a half or so back to Brooklyn Heights, longer if she stuck to back roads the way she had on the way up. But she was tired and hungry and irritated, so she just picked the most direct route and headed towards home.

* * *

 _Sunday, October 29_

It was late, after midnight, by the time Eddie got back to Brooklyn Heights. Out of habit she reached down to the side of the driver's seat to scoot it further back, where Jamie liked it, but she stopped herself. Sure, it would only cause him about four seconds of inconvenience the next time he drove his car, and it was petty and immature—but she wasn't above that right now.

She had geared herself up to turn down whatever he tried to do when she walked in the door. A movie? No. Just sitting and talking? Bad idea, because she didn't trust herself to keep her mouth shut and she could easily make things worse. Sex? Absolutely out of the question.

But she was _not_ prepared for the delicious smell that hit her as she let herself into the dimly lit apartment.

"Eddie?"

His voice came from the bedroom and she rolled her eyes, imagining him frantically putting away his study guide so she wouldn't see what he'd been doing for the last several hours. Without answering she took off her shoes and stepped further inside to see what smelled so good.

"Hey. I'm glad you made it back okay."

She looked up at him as he walked in and her resolve almost evaporated right there. He was wearing the damn Linda Belcher costume, wig and all.

"Are you hungry? I made chicken and cheesy potatoes. I know it's what you wanted the other night."

She sighed. She'd had nothing but candy since her tour ended and she was starving. "Yeah, I guess I could eat."

"Good. Come sit."

She slumped into a chair at the small kitchen table as Jamie went to work, taking food out of the warm oven and making two plates. "Where'd you go?" he asked, just to fill the silence. "How many miles did you put on my car?"

"A few."

"Didn't make it all the way up to say hi to our good friend Lena, did you?"

"God, no."

"Good, because if you went to her, then I'd _really_ be worried."

The joke didn't land, and Eddie just scowled at him as he set their plates down. He handed her silverware and a beer and she started eating, though he didn't touch his own food.

"Eddie," he finally started. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault."

"Yes."

He grimaced at her before continuing. "You were totally right. I haven't been prioritizing you lately—at all. And on top of that, I said a lot of really awful things to you before. And I didn't mean any of it."

"Mm-hmm."

"I love that you always have so much energy, how you're always ready to go on to the next thing. That you hate sitting still. And I've expected you to just sit still way too much lately. I shouldn't do that to you." He paused to gauge her reaction but she was unreadable as she chewed. "The sergeant's exam _is_ important to me. Obviously you know that. But you are way, way more important. There shouldn't even be a comparison but I've still let my priorities get all mixed up. If I somehow lost you then nothing else would mean anything. I hope you know that."

She nodded slightly and waved her fork at her plate. "This is really good."

"Thanks. Anyway, I'm sorry that I've come across as ignoring you or not wanting to spend time with you lately. I never meant to be like that on purpose, but I'm sure that's how I've seemed. It's not fair to you at all. And from now until the test, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure we don't fall back into that again."

She swallowed hard and met his eyes. "Good. Because I really hate feeling more like your roommate than your girlfriend."

He winced. "Yeah. I'm so sorry."

An uneasy silence fell over them and Eddie pretended to focus on her plate, though she'd barely tasted the food after the first few bites. Finally, though, she couldn't take it any longer. "Did you mean all that stuff?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you mean it—that you don't like when I make plans and _drag_ you places? Does it—does it really bother you?"

Jamie wanted to look away from the hurt on her face, but he forced himself to hold her gaze. "No," he said firmly. "You were right that if you didn't do that, we'd sit at home every night and never get out or do anything. And honestly, anytime I do anything with you, I have the time of my life. Doesn't matter what it is. We could go to a pencil museum and I'd have fun as long as you were there."

Eddie exhaled a small laugh. "A _pencil_ museum?"

"I don't know, it's the most boring thing I could think of." He paused to fiddle with his fork. "I didn't mean any of it. That was all mean, stressed-out, studying Jamie talking—not real Jamie who loves you and can't imagine life without you and is kicking himself for letting other Jamie control his mouth earlier."

"Yeah, I don't like that Jamie."

"Me neither."

"Don't let that Jamie come back," she said quietly. "Ever."

"I won't."

"You promise?"

"Yeah. I promise."

"Good," Eddie declared, mostly satisfied—or, at least, less angry. "Are you going to eat?"

Jamie shook his head. "Not really hungry. It's one am, Eddie."

"So?"

His breath caught in his chest as he narrowed his eyes at her. "You know what—no. I'm not saying _anything_."


	13. Chapter 13

This one's short, but enjoy the brotherly bonding and the hints of things to come! Here's to hoping the BB writers get their Jamko act together for Season 8!

* * *

 _Monday, November 20_

"What the hell is a tarragon?"

"It's a spice. You're not going to find it with the lettuce, if that's what your looking for."

Danny frowned at his younger brother. "How do you know this stuff?"

"Um," Jamie laughed incredulously, "I'm a functional adult?"

"Yeah, so am I, but I got a wife who's been doing all the cooking for the last twenty-one years."

"Clearly. You look like you haven't been in a grocery store in about that long, either."

Danny shrugged dismissively. "Only things in a grocery store I care about are the deli and the snack aisle."

"Is that really all you ever buy yourself?"

"Not for me, you idiot, for the boys' lunches. The two of them used to go through a pound of ham, a pound of turkey and God knows how many fruit snacks in about three days. So I'd replace all that between Linda's big shopping trips."

"Uh-huh. Go grab carrots, would you?"

"The big ones or the little baby ones?"

"You've got the list."

Danny groaned as if he'd never heard a more unreasonable request and pulled out his phone to check the Thanksgiving list Erin had put together. Meanwhile Jamie picked out apples for the pies Eddie had volunteered him to make. Linda and Erin didn't usually leave much cooking for the men—their job was shopping and maybe a little chopping or cleanup during the actual dinner prep. But leave it to Eddie to switch things up a little bit this year.

"This'll work, right?" Danny asked, holding up two rubber-banded bunches of carrots.

"The carrots in bags are on sale, but sure, that's fine."

"God, you sound like Linda, like saving twenty cents is some big deal."

"Hey, saving adds up," Jamie pointed out.

Danny gave a knowing grin. "Yeah? You saving for something big?"

"What do you think you know?" Jamie asked.

"I _know_ , kid. It wasn't hard to figure out when I walked in on you talking to Dad before dinner yesterday." Danny flicked his eyebrows. "Been waiting for you to bring it up for the last half hour, actually."

"You didn't say anything to—?"

"Of course not. I'm not _that_ stupid." Danny checked the shopping list again and shoved his phone back into his pocket. "So. When ya gonna do it?"

"Not sure yet. It all depends on the ring—I'm getting the stones from Mom's ring reset."

"You are? Why not just size it for Eddie and be done with it?"

Jamie wrinkled his nose. "I don't know—Sydney wore it. Isn't that weird? It's too weird. I think Eddie would think it's weird if she found out and it's not something I could hide from her for the rest of our lives."

"If it's that weird then why go through the trouble? Why not just get Eddie a whole different ring?"

Jamie shrugged. "Dad says Mom really wanted one of us to use it. Said she would've given it to you for Linda if Dad didn't convince her not to. So I want to use it in some way, but not as-is, because of...that history."

"How come Dad didn't want _me_ to use the ring?" Danny whined.

"Don't know. He probably just wanted it to stay on Mom's finger as long as it could."

"Well, as long as he wasn't trying to save it just for _you_ , golden boy," Danny teased.

"Hey, we all know I was _Mom's_ favorite," Jamie retorted. "But Dad's favorite on any given day was whoever remembered to take out the trash without being told."

"True—which was never me. That was usually—"

"Joe," Jamie finished with him.

"Yeah. God, he was a brownnoser as a kid, wasn't he?"

Jamie laughed. "Yeah, he could be sometimes."

"He'd be proud of you, you know," Danny said. "About Eddie. He'd like her. He'd think she's perfect for you."

Jamie just nodded. He didn't trust himself to reply without his voice cracking.

"You know, he was never too big a fan of Sydney."

Jamie frowned. "He only met her, what, four or five times?"

"Yeah, but you know Joe. He could just _tell_ about people. The rest of us, we didn't start to see it until after he was gone, when you quit the lawyer stuff to become a cop. But Joe? He told me he'd be happy for you anyways, but he thought the fit was… _off_. Eddie, though—I think he'd tell you never to let her go."

"I don't plan to," Jamie said. "Hence the ring."

"Just make sure you keep it on her finger this time, all the way until it becomes official in the eyes of God."

Jamie huffed out a humorless laugh. "That's the goal."

"That won't be any trouble for you two, though. Like I said, Eddie's made for you."

"We're not perfect," Jamie said, remembering the Halloween fight from a few weeks earlier. Things had been better since then, with Jamie making more effort to spend time with Eddie and Eddie also being a bit more considerate of his time and his preferences. But they'd still walked on eggshells around each other for a few days before settling back to normal.

"You don't have to be. You just have to be willing to put in the work to keep the relationship healthy. And from what I've seen, you guys are."

"Thanks. That means a lot, coming from you."

"Yeah, yeah," Danny muttered, effectively ending the moment. "So, you thought about how you're gonna do it? When should you have the ring?"

"It should take a couple weeks but it might be longer," Jamie said.

"And?"

"I don't want to do it on Christmas or anything like that. It's a little—cliché, and it makes it seem like the ring is supposed to be her Christmas present, which it's not. So if the ring's done soon, then sometime in December. If not, I'll wait till after the New Year."

"No New Year's Eve?"

"Right, because it would be _so_ romantic to propose after a long night of dealing with the drunken masses," Jamie scoffed.

"Eh, guess that's true," Danny conceded.

"I haven't completely decided yet," Jamie finally admitted. "I first started thinking about it after a conversation Eddie and I had at the beach back in August, but I still haven't come up with the perfect plan."

"Have you at least decided big or small?"

"Small," Jamie said. "She'd probably love if I did something big and dramatic but—I don't think I could plan all that. I'd be too worried that some piece of it would go wrong and then I'd mess up my whole part and—no. Small."

"Aw, come on. You've done this before. You should be an old pro by now," Danny goaded.

Jamie just scowled. "That's not funny."

"Oh, come on, it is a little."

"Nope." Jamie pushed the cart around the corner and glanced at the list to remember the exact type of sour cream Erin had requested. "You know what? Why don't you go over to the spice aisle and find the tarragon?"

Danny's face contorted into a doubtful expression. "I don't even know where the spice aisle _is_."

"Just read the signs," Jamie said, pointing above their heads to the sign labeling the aisle's merchandise. He let Danny process this revelation, which was clearly new to him, before giving him a nudge towards the main walkway at the front of the supermarket. "And here's another hint—the spices are usually in alphabetical order on the shelf. So I'll expect you to catch up to me, oh, in about an hour."

He grabbed the sour cream and pushed the cart forward, leaving Danny to frown at his back until he walked away.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Originally planned to show family Thanksgiving but I'm skipping it for the sake of moving this story along. Thank you all for the kind words!

* * *

 _Friday, December 15_

Despite the bitter cold, Jamie could feel his palms sweating inside his gloves as he and Eddie walked hand in hand. They'd gone out for dinner at a nice place, but not _so_ nice that Eddie would get suspicious, and they followed with ice skating in Central Park—something she'd talked about doing all year long. He'd spent the whole week building her up, promising a big surprise on Friday night, and as far as she knew, the ice skating was it. She'd had a great time and now, ten minutes after leaving the rink, she was still chattering on about it.

Jamie was grateful for that, though. Her voice grounded him as the significance of the question he was about to ask threatened to blow him away.

She clung to his hand and tucked her shoulder behind his arm for warmth as her free hand animatedly punctuated her words. He was too distracted to fully process what she was saying, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with how long it had taken him to stop shuffling around the ice rink and actually get comfortable on his skates. But whatever—let her make fun. He had bigger things on his mind now.

Everything he'd prepared to say floated around his brain in mismatched pieces and he began to fear that he'd miss something or mess it up when the moment came—if he survived that long without keeling over from the anxiety.

As they got closer and closer to the spot he'd picked, his pulse pounded in his ears so loudly that it actually drowned Eddie out. She urged him to walk faster so they could get out of the cold, and for a moment the panic almost overwhelmed him as he imagined her pulling him right past his stopping point without giving him the chance.

But that didn't happen. He tightened his grip on her hand and managed to keep her in stride with him.

A hundred more feet.

A quick visual check confirmed that his secret photographer, a friend from the precinct who owned a fancy camera, was in place on a bench a little ways past them.

 _Now_.

He gently tugged her arm to stop her under the brightness of a lamppost and he pivoted to face her without letting go of her hand.

"What?" she asked, a small confused frown on her face. "It's freezing, Jam—"

She stopped short and clapped her palm against her mouth when he dropped down to one knee, reaching his free hand into his pocket to grab the ring.

"Eddie," he started, but his voice shook a little and he took a deep breath to steady himself. "Edit Marie Janko."

Her eyes narrowed the slightest bit at his use of her full name, but that didn't dim the twinkle he saw there, full of excitement and hope and possibility.

"You—you drive me crazy. You have since that first night I met you outside the Twelfth."

Crap—where was he going with this? He couldn't remember. He took another deep breath and looked up at her face, illuminated by the streetlamps and the Christmas lights, and he knew he'd never seen anyone more beautiful. Nobody else even _compared_.

He forced himself to keep talking, though now he wasn't sure where the words were coming from. Everything he'd prepared—gone.

"But it's a good thing," he managed. "You make life so—so awesome. You're determined and stubborn and demanding and passionate and you turn me into a better version of myself just by hanging around me. I love you so, so, so much."

Her eyes glowed even more—maybe, he thought, with tears.

"I was the luckiest cop in the city, being your partner for three and a half years, and for the last nine months I've been the luckiest man in the world, because I've gotten to wake up to your grumpy morning self every day."

She let out a small sob of a laugh at that and let go of his hand to nudge his shoulder. Her other hand stayed glued to her face.

"And I want to wake up to your grumpy morning self every single day for the rest of our lives."

Eddie closed her eyes, an extended blink, and took a deep breath. He paused to let her regain some composure and dig for some himself, continuing only when she met his gaze again.

"So—Eddie, will you marry me?"

She couldn't speak, so she just nodded vigorously and pulled at his arm until he stood so she could throw herself at him. He started to fumble with the ring box but gave up to squeeze her with both arms, lifting her off the ground as she buried her face in his shoulder. Finally her feet found the sidewalk again and she leaned back to offer him a watery smile before diving at his lips.

Her kiss was salty from her tears, but Jamie couldn't have cared less. After a minute, though, he pulled back and reached up to wipe her cheeks with his thumbs. And his eyes fell on the small black box in his left hand.

"The ring," he said dumbly, holding it up. He opened it in the tight space between their chests and their foreheads met as they looked down at it. He angled himself slightly so the light fell on the ring and she gasped, her hands flying up to her face again.

"Oh my God, Jamie," she breathed. "It's gorgeous."

He smiled and yanked off one of his gloves with his teeth before reaching for her left hand to work her glove off too. "The diamonds are from my mom's engagement ring," he explained. "She would've loved you. She would've wanted you to have it."

She giggled at his unsuccessful attempt to slide the ring onto her hand. Finally he groaned in happy frustration and ripped off his remaining glove so he could use both hands.

"Damn," she said, holding her hand up once the ring was finally on. "I would've painted my nails if I knew I'd have a reason to stare at my hand like this."

Jamie laughed loudly—the pressure was finally off and he could relax and _holy shit he was engaged to_ _ **Eddie**_ and the elation welling up in his chest was stronger than any version of happiness he'd ever felt before. He held her glove open and pushed it towards her hand. "It's freezing," he wheezed.

She grabbed it from him and shoved it into her coat pocket. "All of a sudden I'm actually perfectly warm."

"Speak for yourself," he chuckled, hugging himself.

"I can share." She grabbed his bare hands and kissed them before folding them in hers and rising up on tiptoes to kiss him again.

After another long moment their lips parted, though they stayed close enough that their clouds of breath still intermingled. "I do have one thing to say, though," she whispered, her eyes giving away the smirk that her lips managed to hold back.

"Yeah?" Jamie said. "What's that?"

"Next time you ask a girl to marry you, maybe don't spend quite as much time on the grumpy morning thing."

His chest rumbled with another deep laugh. "Next time? There won't be any next time. You're it, babe."

Their hands found each other again and they wordlessly turned to keep walking. Out of the corner of his eye Jamie saw the photographer slink away. Eddie hadn't noticed her at all, apparently, so the pictures would be another surprise for her over the weekend.

"For the record, though," he said. "I had a whole thing prepared. Seriously, a whole thing. It was going to take, like, four or five minutes for me to get through it all, on and on about every single thing I love about you, how you make life worth living, blah, blah, blah. But—yeah, I sort of blanked. I think you got the highlights, though."

She threw her head back and laughed, high-pitched giggles that shook her shoulders, until her eyes brimmed with tears again. "I'm shocked," she finally managed. " _You_ , Jameson Harvard Reagan, forgetting something you prepared? I can hardly believe it."

"It's true," he shrugged. "I swear, I had something a whole lot better than grumpy morning Eddie."

Eddie peered at him, eyebrows inching up towards her knit hat. "You gave an hour-long speech to two thousand people in California," she giggled, "and you were too nervous to remember five minutes of proposing to me?"

Jamie lifted his free hand up near his shoulder in a gesture of innocence. "Two reasons for that. One, you were there to keep me sane before that speech, but for this, what was I supposed to do? _Hey, Eddie, I'm going to propose to you this weekend and I'm really nervous so can you help me calm down_? No way. Two, there was a lot more riding on tonight than on that stupid _work_ speech."

She accepted that answer and her lips quirked up into a closed smile. They were almost out of the park now, and Jamie's car was visible a short distance down the street.

"Wow," she sighed again. "We're getting married."

"Yep."

"When?"

"I'd tie the knot tomorrow if Erin wouldn't kill me for depriving her a wedding."

"Ha. It would definitely make things easier, logistically. No planning, no waiting…"

"What? You mean you haven't had every detail of your wedding planned out since you were eight?" He let go of her hand to open the car door for her. "Eddie Janko, I am completely _shocked_."

"God, no," she scoffed as she climbed into the seat. "I have ideas about the food, but the wedding itself—never really thought about it. I bet my mom probably has, though. She's probably planned the whole damn—"

"What?" Jamie said, raising his eyebrows at her over the top of the door.

"Dammit, Reagan, we're getting married," she groaned, but the smile never left her face. "You know what that means? Ugh, I'm going to have to call my mom."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Wanted this to turn out a little Christmas-y-er (that's a word, right?) but it's hard to capture the Christmas spirit when you're surrounded by Easter decorations in a children's hospital ICU. I tried putting a Santa hat on the baby but somehow that didn't help, lol. So this is what you get. Enjoy! –Sandy

* * *

 _Monday, December 25_

It had been five years, maybe even longer, since Eddie had a _good_ Christmas. Since her father's arrest it had just become another reminder of how things _used_ to be; it was always the biggest holiday throughout her childhood, full of presents and cousins and food—but it hadn't been that way in so long that she almost didn't remember what it felt like. She'd done such a good job of numbing herself to it the last several years, either by working or, once, suffering through the day with her mother, that today the charm of Christmas felt practically new.

They'd enjoyed a quiet morning as Jamie slept off his midnight Christmas Eve tour and Eddie put together the sweet potato casserole they'd been assigned to bring to family dinner. After exchanging their personal gifts for each other they'd made their way over to Bay Ridge to join the rest of the family.

Most of the food was in the oven now and Jamie, Danny, and the boys were down the street shoveling out Frank's elderly neighbors. So Eddie, her future sisters-in-law, and her soon-to-be niece sat around the kitchen table with warm mugs as instrumental Christmas music floated through the air from the portable speaker Nicky had set up on the counter.

"So," Linda said, grinning, as she sat down. "You two started talking about plans yet?"

"Not really," Eddie admitted. "We have a deal—no major wedding talk until after the sergeant's exam. But in three weeks, well, we can start getting serious about it."

"Aw, you haven't thought about it at all?" Erin prodded.

"I have, a little," Eddie said. "I've looked online some and—it's overwhelming, everything they say you have to do to plan a wedding."

The other three nodded knowingly.

"Do you at least have a timetable?" Erin asked.

Eddie shook her head. "We sort of talked about that, and we know we don't want a long engagement—less than a year, hopefully. I think Jamie thinks the sooner the better because if he gets promoted this coming year and has to go through training and all that, he'd rather not have it happen while we're still planning."

"Oh, sure, _that_ ," Linda agreed. "But I bet he also just wants to get that ring on your finger and move on with your lives together."

Eddie shrugged. "That's what I want, for sure. I don't see any reason to drag it out, you know? I know what I want, and it's _him_. We sort of _joked_ about eloping but—I'd actually do it, I think. I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"You can't!" Nicky argued. Erin sent her a scolding glance. "What? I want to be a bridesmaid."

Eddie laughed away Erin's annoyed frown. "Don't worry, it's not going to happen. There will be _a_ wedding. It may not be huge or anything, but there will be one."

"Good," Linda declared. "I'm on the same page as Nicky. I've got two boys so you two"—she flicked a hand between Eddie and Nicky—"are my only real chances to help plan a wedding on the bride's side."

"I'm going to need lots of it," Eddie said. She sipped her tea and inhaled the minty steam coming off her mug. "But I apologize in advance for anything you'll have to do with my mom."

"Have you told her yet?" Erin asked.

Eddie winced. "No. Jamie keeps bugging me about it, too. I think he would've gone to my parents first, or at least my mom, and asked for her blessing but he knows I would've _hated_ it. He says he gave me that, so I should at least do her the honor of letting her know we're engaged but…"

"Wow—I know you and your mom don't get along but I'm still surprised he didn't go to her. He's usually pretty traditional with that kind of thing," Erin pointed out.

"I'm so glad he didn't. I had no idea it was coming but she definitely would've given it away. She probably would've told me to run, actually. She's never been too excited that I'm with another cop."

"He's right that getting engaged is, you know, a _big_ deal," Linda said. "She should know, now that it's official. Is there a real reason for the holdup?"

"I'm telling myself I'll tell her the day Jamie takes his exam," Eddie offered. "Once she accepts that it's happening, she'll probably want to take over and start planning right away but—no planning until after the test."

"How involved do you think she'll try to be?" Erin asked.

"Oh, she'd take over _everything_ if I let her. She'd turn it into this big, dramatic, expensive disaster. And that's not what I want. I'll be happy if it's pretty small, you know? Just the people that _really_ matter. We know it might get some press attention, the PC's son getting married—I don't want to aggravate that with some big spectacle but my mom won't care what I think about that."

"She _has_ to care about what you want for your own wedding," Nicky said.

Eddie grimaced and shook her head. "You'll get to meet her, I'm sure, and you'll see. She's a narcissist, thinks only about herself. Our wedding won't be about me and Jamie to her; it'll be about how _she_ looks."

Erin shook her head. "That's too bad. Every mother dreams of the day her little girl gets married…"

Nicky frowned at her mother. "Yeah, but you're definitely _not_ going to be in charge of my wedding," she declared.

"Of course not, but I'll help you get everything just how you want it," Erin replied.

"See, if my mom thought like that, it'd be okay," Eddie cut in. "But she definitely won't. She'll turn it into the Lena Janko show."

"Maybe you can come up with a few specific things for her to be in charge of so she'll stay out of the way for the really big stuff," Erin suggested.

"Yeah—how much could go wrong if she's in charge of, say, flowers and maybe communicating with the caterer?" Linda added.

"Oh, no, she's not getting anywhere near the food," Eddie said. "Flowers, though—that's a good idea. I might have to get married in a dress made out of lilies or something." She offered a bitter, humorless laugh. "But she couldn't completely screw up the overall thing with _flowers_."

"Well, whatever you need from us, that's what we'll do," Linda said. "Even if you want us to try and talk down your mother for you."

"Good luck," Eddie muttered.

"We'll be waiting for our assignments as soon as Jamie finishes the sergeant's exam," Erin joked.

"Maybe not _as soon as_ ," Eddie said. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure nobody else was near the kitchen, though she knew all the boys were still outside. "I have a little surprise for Jamie right after he finishes it. But after that I'm sure we'll have ideas for you."

The other three women leaned in closer, smiling with anticipation as they waited for Eddie to elaborate.

"I just thought of this last week," Eddie intimated. "So you have to promise not to say anything to him. But we have these free flight vouchers from the conference last winter, and they expire in February anyway. I think Jamie forgot about them. So I'm booking us a little trip to celebrate that he'll be done."

"Hey, you'll deserve to celebrate as much as him," Erin said.

"Oh, I know. I'm already preparing myself—I don't think I'll see him at all for the last couple weeks before he takes it."

"Come on, that's a bit of an exaggeration."

Eddie shook her head. "He's already stressed that it's coming up so fast. Part of me doesn't see how he could possibly work any harder than he already does, but I know he'll find a way. And we've already talked about it—after today he's off the hook for pretty much everything. I told him he _has_ to at least celebrate the New Year with me but otherwise, no date nights, no wedding talk…probably no Sunday dinners for him, either, until the test is done. Just work and studying and I'll be here if he wants anything but I don't have my hopes up."

"That's good of you to help take the pressure off with everything else," Linda said.

Eddie nodded. "It's been a bit of an issue since the summer, how he's constantly studying—and it was one thing when the test was still a few months away but now that we're down to _weeks_ , I don't have any illusions about where his focus will be."

"He'll drive himself into the ground," Erin agreed.

"But you'll have a surprise trip afterwards to make up for the lost time," Nicky grinned. "Smart."

"Yeah, exactly."

"Do we get to know where you're going on this mystery trip?" Linda asked.

"I can't give away _all_ my secrets," Eddie scoffed. "But it's going to be really fun. And he'll be so preoccupied studying he won't even notice if I'm a little busy trying to plan out the details—plus it gives me something to do, something to look forward to down this home stretch."

"And on the trip you can start talking about the wedding!" Nicky exclaimed. "There'll be nothing else to worry about then!"

Eddie nodded. "Right. My goal is for us to agree on a couple of big things, at least get a ballpark for the date—but I also don't want the trip to be all work and no play."

"Oh, honey, this early in the process it'll all feel like play. It's like the honeymoon of wedding planning. It won't turn into work until a ways down the road," Linda said.

Wrinkling her nose, Eddie shook her head. "It'll turn into work the second my mom finds out." She lifted her left hand and wiggled her ring finger, though there was no question as to what she was talking about.

"So you're going to tell her the day Jamie takes the test? Or wait until you get back from your—"

They all heard the front door open and Erin cut herself off. Eddie just shrugged in response to her unfinished question.

"Smells great in here!" Danny called. He stomped into the kitchen, leaving a watery trail from his snow boots.

"Danny, you're making a mess," Linda complained. "Go get those boots off."

Sean appeared in the doorway, his face cherry-red from the hard work of shoveling snow. "Is dinner ready yet?"

"Another forty-five minutes," Erin told him. "Go upstairs and find your grandpa to see if he's willing to do presents now instead of after dinner. Remind him, your mom has to work tonight."

Jamie leaned over Eddie's chair and hugged her from behind as he pressed a kiss into her hair. She melted into him for a second but then she sat up straight and tried to push him away. "It's going to have to wait until Jamie showers, Sean," she called after him. She tipped her head back to look at Jamie upside-down. "You're disgusting."

Jamie wiped his sweaty forehead on his sleeve and grinned at her. "Come on, it doesn't turn you on to have a fiancé who's so dedicated to helping out the neighbors who need it?"

Erin smirked. "Uh-huh—how many of Mrs. Elliot's Christmas cookies did you eat over there?"

"Hey, quit giving away the family secrets," Danny griped from the front entryway.

"Eddie _is_ family now," Linda shot back.

"Yeah, and Mrs. Elliot says Dad can't have any more of these," Jack said. He reached over his mom's shoulder and placed a red tin on the table. "He already ate more than his share."

Linda opened the cookie container. "Mm," she hummed. "Still warm."

"Try one, Eddie," Jamie said. "They're the best."

"What's this I hear about cookies?" Henry rumbled, padding into the kitchen in church clothes and slippers. "Nobody's ruining their appetite, are they?"

Eddie stopped moving, a star-shaped cookie halfway to her mouth.

"Oh, just you," Henry said dismissively. "That's fine then. Never known _you_ to lose your appetite over a little dessert."


	16. Chapter 16

_Friday, January 12_

The testing center felt like the only place Jamie had ever known, as if he hadn't existed before the endless morning he'd spent here. With the exam finally over he mindlessly floated to the men's room, mostly because the door showed up at the end of the hall and he didn't know what else to do. It was like his world was suddenly completely different—the thing he'd been working toward for the last eight months was over. But rather than the relief he'd expected, his chest and his brain felt empty. There was nothing left to do now but wait.

He wasn't sure how long he stood in front of the mirror, leaning heavily on the countertop as his chin hung loosely against his chest. It could've been ten seconds or an hour. But the door creaked open and his eyes jerked up from the fixed point on the faucet he'd been staring at this whole time, and one of the exam proctors stepped over to the urinal.

Seeing another human reminded Jamie that life had to go on. His hand was wet from a puddle on the counter; he wiped it on his jeans and pushed his way out of the bathroom. He continued to the lobby on autopilot, trying to remember where he'd parked his car twelve years ago when he arrived for this test—

"Eddie?"

His own voice sounded foreign in his ears, as if someone else had called to her across the lobby. But her eyes snapped up from the book in her lap and she smiled as she stood up from her bench.

"Hey! How'd it go? Just glad it's over?"

"What—what are you doing here?" he stuttered. His brain was about ten steps behind and he could barely process that she was _here_ , much less answer her questions.

"I came to pick you up," she said cheerfully. "You ready to get out of here? The car's outside."

"But—mine—"

"Your car is safely at home, my friend. And I've got a little surprise for you." She weaved her fingers through his and ushered him toward the exit.

A moment later the frigid air assaulted his face and it was just the shock he needed to get his brain moving again. "How come all your surprises involve you moving my car?" he asked.

"Just the one other time," Eddie said, referring to his birthday dinner. "You make it sound like I do it once a week."

Jamie glanced up and down the street but he didn't see Eddie's car. She led him forward anyway, and he found himself climbing into the passenger seat of a familiar but nondescript minivan.

"Linda?"

"Jamie, how was your test?"

He glanced over his shoulder at Eddie, who flicked her eyebrows from the backseat.

"Um, well, it's done," he said. "What's going on?"

Eddie reached up and patted his shoulder. "You'll see."

"Am I supposed to—is this—Eddie, I'm sorry, my brain is fried. What's—?"

"I told you, just wait and see." She adjusted in her seat and shifted her gaze out the window, and he knew that whatever was happening, he wasn't supposed to talk about it anymore. And he was too tired to think of the possibilities of what Eddie's scheme might be, so he tipped his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes.

He opened them again when he felt Eddie's hand shaking his shoulder from behind. "We're here, Jamie. Wakey, wakey."

He rubbed his eyes with one hand and looked around. "The airport? Why?"

"Well, it's a little hard to fly anywhere if you don't go to the airport first," she teased. She slid the back door open and climbed out, and he looked at Linda for confirmation.

"Go!" she said. "You've got a plane to catch!"

Still completely confused, Jamie rolled out of the car and trailed around the back of it, where Eddie was yanking two suitcases and a backpack out of the trunk. "What's going on?"

"We are going on a little trip," she said, shoving his backpack at him. "To celebrate that the sergeant's exam is over and we're engaged and life is good." She stood on tiptoes to pull the hatch down.

"But—work?"

"Yeah, about that—did you know how many vacation days you've built up? It is a _lot_ , Reagan, let me tell you."

"But my schedule—"

"Fake," Eddie smirked. "I've got connections, love. In reality you've been in for five days of vacation for the last month."

Jamie just deflated in bewildered amusement as Eddie thanked Linda for the ride and turned to walk into the terminal.

He rushed after her to get out of the wind. "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out when we get there," she said over her shoulder.

With three more long strides he caught up to her. "What, did you pay the pilot to keep it a secret, too?"

She crinkled her nose as if it hadn't occurred to her that she couldn't possibly keep the secret for that long.

"And I need my boarding pass for security," he added.

"It's on my phone," she said. "Just be patient."

He agreed, but only because he thought the security officer would demand that he scan his own electronic boarding pass into the reader. He'd get to see it then. But to his surprise, the TSA officer didn't even blink when they approached the podium together and Eddie scanned both passes.

"Come on, you have to tell me where," he begged as they left security. "You won't be able to find the right gate yourself."

She made a face at him. "I can read the signs as well as you can, mister."

"Is it somewhere warm?" he said. "Florida? The beach?"

Eddie shook her head.

"DC? Chicago? Oh, California? Going back to where it all began?"

Eddie pointed to the marquee of the gate they were passing. "Nope. Omaha, Nebraska. The best place for a romantic weekend getaway." She steered them into the seating area and plopped into a chair.

Jamie frowned at her. "Omaha?"

"What? Not a good enough surprise vacation for you?"

"No, it's just—uh—it's not what I thought you'd pick."

She grinned. "Well, you're right. It's not." She stood up again and adjusted her purse on her shoulder. "But I'm sure I could send you there by yourself if you don't quit bugging me."

Eddie milked the surprise a little longer, treating Jamie to a late lunch at an airport bar to delay the inevitable as long as she could. There wasn't too much time to waste, though, and before long they were on their feet again.

"Seriously, if you don't tell me I'm going to go through everything you packed for me and figure it out based on the weather," he said.

"Great idea—go ahead and hold up your Speedo for the whole airport to see."

"I don't own a Speedo," he said.

"What if I bought you one for the trip?"

"You didn't."

"You don't know that."

" _Please_ just tell me. I can't take it anymore."

She sighed dramatically but a smile danced in her eyes. "Fine. We're going to one of my favorite cities. If you guess right, I'll tell you."

"Denver?"

"Nope."

"Uh, Seattle?"

"Nope, but that's high on the list for next time."

"Is this going to be a regular thing, you kidnapping me and taking me on surprise vacations?"

Eddie smirked. "Well, it's not a bad way for me to make sure I always get to pick the place."

"LA?"

"Warmer."

"Is it really San Diego again?"

"North."

"San Francisco?"

"There you go!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really. The gate's right up here."

"I'm gonna need to see a boarding pass," he said, still not sure what to believe.

"Oh, relax." But she dug out her phone and showed him the boarding passes on her airline app, confirming that San Francisco was their destination. "Now you know, so listen, I have two requests while we're there. One, there's this really good Mediterranean restaurant—"

"Of course there is," Jamie laughed.

She cut him off with a jab of her elbow into his ribs. "And I want to rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. I did it in high school and it was awesome."

Jamie nodded.

"And I also got us tickets to Alcatraz because I thought you might want to see it, and they're hard to get last-minute. But we don't have to if you don't want to—and the whole rest of the trip is all up to you."

"The _whole_ thing?"

"Yep. All of it."

Jamie pretended to ponder all the options this opened up for him. "One thing does come to mind," he said.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Staying in bed for five days with my gorgeous fiancée, making up for lost time from studying. I haven't had enough of you since the weekend I proposed."

Eddie giggled. "Come on, Reagan, we're going all the way across the country and _that's_ the only thing you can think of to do?"

He held up a finger to silence her. "Ah—you said. One Mediterranean dinner, one bike trip, and the rest is up to me."

"I did, didn't I?" Eddie sighed in mock resignation and pressed herself against his side as they reached their gate. "Well, I guess there are worse ways to spend a vacation."

* * *

A/N: I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm not going to show the rest of their San Francisco trip outright (I want to keep this story moving, and when I started to go there, it ended up sounding a lot like the San Diego trip from "The Conference" so it got cut). But be on the lookout for little flashbacks or stories about the trip in future chapters. I'll probably try to fit some in so we at least get a taste of their surprise vacation :) -Sandy


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: This chapter will give you a hint about what's to come in the next sequel and why I'm so excited about it! Let me know what you think! -Sandy

* * *

 _Tuesday, January 30_

Jamie pressed fingers into his eyelids and let out a frustrated noise that was some combination of groan, whimper, and cough. He'd been so relieved to finally find a discount store that was open at this hour that he hadn't even thought about what he'd do once he got inside—and now he stood in front of racks of children's pajamas, feeling more helpless than he had in a long time.

He knew _nothing_ about kids' clothes. He checked Eddie's text for the fifteenth time, though he'd already memorized it and he knew it wouldn't help him figure out why the hell there were _T_ s and _M_ s mixed in with the numbered sizes she'd sent him. It was too late—or rather, too early—for this shit.

Finally he started to rifle through the closest rack, checking the tags for anything that might work. But there were no _T_ s or _M_ s, just numbers. 6. He needed that. He pulled the long-sleeved cotton pajama set off the rack. One down—only ten or fifteen more things to go.

This was the last thing he expected when the TV explosion jolted him awake at 3am. He'd fallen asleep on the couch waiting for Eddie to get home from her swing shift and when she wasn't back yet at three, he had panicked a little—and even more when he found his phone between the couch cushions and read a text from her that had the word _hospital_ —as in, that's where she was, and she assured him she was fine, but she was still taking care of a case.

He'd called her to see why _she_ had to stay there, why another officer couldn't have relieved her after the shift change, and she had explained that she was officially off-duty. But she'd taken a domestic call near the end of her tour and there were kids involved. If she didn't stay with them, they'd be by themselves in the ER until the ACS worker found them a foster home.

And now he was shopping at 4am for three sets of pajamas, three regular outfits, diapers, and dinner for five.

He had no idea what kind of regular clothes to pick out for a six-year-old girl, and he still hadn't found anything in the sizes for the two younger siblings. For the older girl he finally grabbed a plain purple long-sleeved shirt and black leggings, along with socks and a pack of days-of-the-week undies. But the little kids—

"Are you finding everything okay, sir?"

He would've hugged the woman if it weren't for his arms full of stuff. She was the first employee he'd seen on the floor since coming in here. "Yeah," he said. "I'm looking for—I need—let me just show you." He dug out his phone and showed Eddie's text. "It's a long story but my fiancée is—she met—uh, I need clothes, these sizes."

"You'll want to go over to the toddler section," the woman said. "This is girls' but it looks like you've found what you need here?"

Jamie nodded.

"Yes. You'll find both boys' and girls' toddler sizes in the next section over."

"Thank you," he said earnestly.

"You're welcome. You need any more help, just holler."

He still felt overwhelmed but he didn't want to admit just how clueless he was unless he absolutely had to. The woman had given him a starting point and now he hoped he could figure it out.

He did. In the toddler section there were _T_ s and _M_ s after the numbers on the clothing tags and suddenly it made sense— _toddler_ and _months_ , as in a child's age. He grabbed fleece pajamas, dinosaurs on the 3T ones and a cutesy pink design on the 18M, and a t-shirt and pants set for each kid. With another multi-pack of toddler socks and some underwear for the little boy in hand, he followed the signs to the baby supply section to find the right size diapers for the youngest one.

Twenty minutes later he walked into the St. Vic's emergency waiting room balancing the shopping bags and the food order Eddie had called in at the 24-hour diner up the block. He managed to flash his shield and the receptionist opened the electronic doors for him.

"Jamie! Over here!"

"Hey," he sighed, leaning down to peck her lips. She was still in uniform and so normally any PDA would be off-limits, but dammit, he'd gone out at 3:30am just because she'd asked him to, and he wanted to kiss her.

She didn't hesitate. "Come on," she said. "They're this way." She grabbed the food and spun on her heel to lead the way to the private ER room where the kids were waiting.

"So what's the deal with their parents?" Jamie asked.

"Mom's in bad shape, unconscious, not breathing on her own," Eddie said. "Greene and Detective Hansen took the dad in from here after the doc ran a tox screen. I asked Greene if he'd mind for me to stay till ACS finds them a foster home. I couldn't just leave them. They were in such bad shape, nasty clothes, messy faces, you should've seen them, Jamie…"

She ducked abruptly into an open doorway and held open the curtain that blocked the view from the hallway.

"See? I told you I'd be right back," she said cheerfully. "I had to go find Jamie! This is him. Remember? I told you he's a police officer too. Can you say hi?"

The two older kids, a girl and a boy, shrunk back against the bed where they sat side-by-side in matching teddy bear hospital gowns. Their younger sister snored softly past their feet, framed by the metal rails of the gurney.

"Oh, it's okay, Nevaeh," Eddie crooned. "He's here to help you, just like I am."

"He don't look like a police," the little boy said.

Eddie grabbed the shield that was clipped to the outside of Jamie's sweatpants pocket. "See this? This means he is, even though he's not wearing his uniform right now. Look, it's just like mine." She held it up to the one on her chest to prove it.

"She's right," Jamie said, taking his shield back. "But I'm not wearing my uniform because I was at home, sleeping. You're Nevaeh—what's your name, buddy?"

"Elijah," the boy answered.

"Do you like French fries, Elijah? Are you hungry?" Jamie set the clothing bags on a chair and took the food from Eddie so he could spread it out below the baby at the foot of the bed.

"The nurse gave them each half a sandwich," Eddie grumbled under her breath. "Like that's supposed to hold them over all night."

"Look. We've got chicken, fries, some fruit—what do you think?"

"Here—I'm going to pick up Kayla so you guys can eat, okay? It's alright, Nevaeh, I'm not taking her anywhere." Eddie gingerly picked up the sleeping toddler and cradled her across the front of her body.

Jamie hitched one hip on the foot of the bed and narrated for the kids as he squeezed ketchup packets into one of the Styrofoam lids. Both kids hesitated until he handed them their own chicken tenders, but then they shoved the food into their mouths so fast Jamie worried they'd choke. He moved the boxes closer to himself and tried to pace them while Eddie swayed the baby and watched, a sad smile on her face.

Jamie picked at the fries and fed a few to Eddie, who needed both arms to support little Kayla, but they left most of the food for the kids. The four orders of chicken tenders were halfway gone when a young woman in suit pants and a wrinkled blouse marched in.

"Officer Janko, I wanted to let you—um, who's—"

"This is Officer Reagan," Eddie said. "My fiancé. I called him in for reinforcement—and food. He brought some clothes, too."

"Ah, great. Listen, I've got about four more calls to make, but I wanted to let you know that if it comes down to it, I do have two families on standby right now—one for Neveah and one for Elijah and Kayla."

Jamie watched Eddie's face transform into an expression that could only be described as terror. "You said you'd try to keep them together!" she yelped.

"That's why I'm still calling. But at this point, two separate placements are better than none at all. I'll keep you updated. Nice to meet you, Officer."

With that, the caseworker clacked her heels right out of the room.

"She's still looking, Eddie," Jamie soothed. "She'll find someone."

Eddie stepped closer to the bed and leaned into his side, propping an elbow on his thigh. "It's already been hours," she moaned.

"You don't gotta go, Eddie?" Neveah asked. It was the first time Jamie heard her address anyone except her younger brother.

"No, sweetie. I told you, I'm staying with you until Miss Tannen finds a nice family for you to stay with for a while."

The little girl shifted uncomfortably and frowned, and Jamie's heart broke at the unmistakable fear he saw in her eyes.

* * *

Eddie's foot tapped loudly against the floor and she frowned at her laptop screen. The NYC Administration for Children's Services website flew past her eyes as she read it for the second or third time this afternoon. With the caseworker unable to find a family willing to take all three children, Neveah, Elijah, and Kayla had finally been split and taken to two separate foster homes around six that morning. Eddie had slept for a few hours upon arriving home, but she couldn't shake the desperate feeling in the pit of her stomach that had nagged at her since the moment she heard the crying from the back bedroom of the small apartment the night before.

She jumped about a foot in the air when she heard the locks turn in the front door.

"Jamie!"

"Hey," he said casually. "I thought you'd still be sleeping."

She shook her head and turned back to her computer. "I got a couple hours in but I've been up since like twelve."

"How come?" He draped his coat over a chair and settled into the couch beside her.

"Just couldn't sleep. Easy tour?"

"Yeah, nothing exciting," he yawned. "Dragged on forever, though. Guess that's what happens when you're up all night…"

"I think we should think about being foster parents," Eddie blurted.

" _What_?"

"I can't stop thinking about how those kids—they had to be separated from each other _after_ they saw their mom get beaten almost to death and—and it's just not fair."

Jamie frowned. "Eddie, it's a whole long process. It's not like we could just make some phone calls and bring those kids here tonight."

"No, not them, specifically. But I was talking to the ACS lady before you got there last night and do you know how often she's in the exact same situation? It's not like we're in time to help the kids from last night, but there will be _other_ kids—and if we could do something for them—"

"There are other ways to help than becoming foster parents," Jamie said quietly.

"But there's nothing else that makes _that_ big of a difference."

Jamie sighed and adjusted the direction of the conversation. "We've both dealt with child welfare cases before. What is it about this one?"

She shrugged. "Every kid case gets to me. But this one—I don't know, I just spent so much time with those kids at the hospital, and I got them to talk to me. Nevaeh? She just casually told me that her father hits her with a whiffle ball bat when she's bad, like she was telling me her favorite color. It's like they've already been through so much and on top of it now they're separated from each other…" Her voice trailed off and she shook her head a little, dissatisfied with how she was explaining herself. But she couldn't find a better way to articulate her thoughts right this second.

"I agree, Eddie, it's awful and it's sad and even with all I've seen as a cop there are still times I'm surprised at the horrible things humans do to each other."

"And the kids are the innocent victims," she said. "They need people who can advocate for them and help them heal—and the ACS lady even said, there are tons of foster parents in the city who can't even do that. The foster homes end up just as bad as the homes the kids come from. But we—we could be different. You met those kids, Jamie. Think how much better their situation would be if they got to stay together in a really good foster home."

"That's all true," Jamie accepted. "But there's a _lot_ to consider on our side of this, Eddie. This is not the kind of decision we can make overnight."

"I know that—"

"I mean, foster care is supposed to be temporary. Could you handle getting attached to a child and then watching them leave? Because honestly I don't know if I could."

"Jamie, that argument is like me breaking up with you right now, saying that loving you isn't worth it because of how hard it would be if God forbid you got hurt on the job—"

"No, because that's a scary thing to think about but it's not _guaranteed_. In fact it's unlikely. But it is almost certain that any foster kids would leave eventually."

She pursed her lips. "So because it'll be hard for _us_ , that means we should deprive a child of a healthy family even if it's just for a little while?"

"It's something to consider," Jamie shrugged. "And do you realize how hard parenting is? It's hard enough, but then you add in all the extra issues that foster kids can have..."

"Did you know I spent three summers in college nannying my cousin's kids? She and her husband were both flight attendants so I was by myself with the kids for half of every week. Me, by myself, with three kids under five, including one who was autistic with all kinds of behavior issues. But I managed. Before I became a cop, those kids were the hardest job I ever had but also so fulfilling."

"You were a nanny? I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well, I don't even know where that cousin lives now," Eddie murmured. "I haven't talked to her since—yeah, it's been a while. Her oldest must be in eighth or ninth grade."

"And logistically," Jamie continued, rolling over the uncomfortable reference to the damage of her father's crimes. "How will it work, two cops' schedules? We'd have to move—and the cars—"

"We only extended the lease on this place through July so we'll have to move anyway," Eddie pointed out. "And the other stuff, I mean, you want kids someday, right? If I got pregnant we'd make it work, so we can make it work with foster kids too."

"Eddie—"

"Just hear me out. For one—you know how I feel about kids. I used to say I would never have any but I want them, Jamie, I do. Soon. But I also have my career to think about. And fostering doesn't rule out having our own kids later but it gives us a chance to—I don't know, start a family a little sooner _without_ me having to put my career on hold. We can be parents, we'll have kids, but I won't have to stop and go on desk duty or maternity leave quite so soon. Hopefully I make detective in the next year or two and once I'm there, then we can talk about biological kids, when it won't interrupt things for me so much."

"Eddie, I—I'm sorry, this is just a whole lot to think about right now."

She opened her mouth to keep going with all the things she'd thought about all day, but she thought better of it. This wasn't something she could push him into; he needed to be fully onboard and he had to get there on his own. "Just say you'll think about it. Please?"

"I guess, Eddie, but _you_ need to think about it too, when you're not just having an emotional reaction to a tough call."

She scowled at his word choice. "Emotional reaction? This isn't that, Jamie. This is me learning about this whole need in the city that I've never considered before, that kids need stable, loving foster parents, and thinking that you and I could actually do something about it."

"We'll need to do a lot of research, though, find out more information—"

She tilted her laptop to show him the screen. "Look. I've already checked. There are monthly orientations—it's not a commitment, it's just to learn about fostering and the application process."

"Oh," Jamie said.

"I think we should sign up for one."

"Um…"

"Not a commitment," she repeated. "Just information. We go, we learn about the details, and after that, if we talk about it and decide that it's not something we'll be able to do, then we drop it. But I really think we should look into it, babe."

She could practically see the gears turning inside his head, probably thinking about how he could talk her down from this idea. She braced herself for one last convincing monologue to open him up to the idea—it was just an information session, after all; it wasn't like they'd come home from orientation with a kid—but she didn't need it.

"Alright," Jamie said. "Go ahead and sign us up."

* * *

A/N: If Eddie comes off as obnoxious in this chapter, that's _not_ my intention. Think of her as truly, thoughtfully interested in the idea of becoming a foster parent. I don't mean for her to seem bratty, just maybe a _little_ pushy, as we know she can be when she's passionate about something. She recognizes that this is a huge decision that she can't just _make_ for Jamie, but she really, really wants him to consider the idea.

Still...writing this chapter made me pretty thankful that I didn't have to convince a boyfriend/husband to foster, haha.


	18. Chapter 18

_Friday, February 23_

"A promotion? But why, sweetheart?"

Eddie glowered at her mother. "You and Dad told me my entire life that I could do whatever I wanted, and now you're asking me _why_ I want a promotion in the career I love?"

"Well, is it really necessary?" Lena pushed. "The clock is ticking, Eddie. And God knows Jamie will give you beautiful babies. I just think it's a bit silly to wait in the name if chasing a promotion—especially when you'll stay at home with your child, once you have one."

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm not going to quit my job?" Eddie groaned.

"You say that now," Lena said dismissively.

"I say that now, and it's true. Jamie and I have pretty much agreed, we'll start trying for kids _after_ I make detective. I'm not just going to give that up." She didn't add that she and Jamie planned to attend a foster parent orientation the following week— _that_ information would cause a shitstorm that she didn't have the energy to deal with today.

"Is it because of the money?" Lena asked bluntly. "I can't imagine the pressure, trying to raise a family on a policeman's salary. But you know, sweetheart, all you've got to do is say the word."

"It is _not_ about money," Eddie insisted. "Jamie and I are very comfortable—and honestly, we could probably make it on just his income once he's promoted. But that's none of your business. I _love_ my job and I don't want to give it up. That's it."

"When will that be—his promotion?" Lena asked.

Eddie sighed. "The sergeant's exam results just came back this week and Jamie's fourth in line. He got the highest raw score of everyone who finished the test, but they factor in your time on the job and your awards, so those bonus points bumped a few people ahead of him."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Soon. Possibly by the wedding."

"I hope so," Lena said. She held up one of the sample invitations they were browsing. "It really would look much better, you marrying someone with a title instead of just an _officer_." She practically spat the word as if it disgusted her just to say it.

"Well, it won't happen before we have to send these out, so forget it," Eddie snapped. "And we don't want our titles on the invites anyway, Mom. Why would we?"

"We could wait a month and just see—I mean, fourth in line, that'll come up fast," Lena continued as if she hadn't heard Eddie.

"Mom, the wedding is four months from today. I want to just get these done so they'll be ready to send out next month."

"Well, pushing things back is also an option. There's no rush, really. If we postpone by six or eight months we'll really have time to plan everything and you won't feel so rushed. Winter is a lovely time to get married."

"It's like you don't hear the words coming out of your own mouth," Eddie groaned. "One minute you're telling me to hurry up and pop out some grandbabies and _now_ you think we should push back the wedding?"

"Well, would you consider it? With enough time we could book a much nicer venue than that church. I've always loved the idea of seeing you get married in a luxury hotel…"

"You _said_ you liked the church," Eddie said through gritted teeth. Lena's opinion on this didn't really matter, though. They were getting married at the Reagans' beautiful church on June 23 and that was final.

"Oh, it'll do, certainly, but it's not the atmosphere I'd really prefer."

"Good thing you're not the one getting married, then."

Lena held up a white invitation pressed with shiny foil accents. "This one's lovely, Eddie, don't you think?"

Eddie wrinkled her nose. "Not colorful enough."

" _Colorful_?" Lena sneered. "Sweetheart, this is an invitation to your _wedding_ , not your tenth birthday party."

" _My_ wedding, Mom, not yours, and I'll pick out what I like. The wedding itself will be colorful so why shouldn't the invitations?" Eddie grabbed one that had caught her eye earlier—white with four broad stripes of color printed to mimic watercolor brushstrokes, backing up white text in a simple font. "This one's my favorite. Let's see if we can customize the stripes and then be done."

"Sweetheart, that's just gaudy," Lena complained. "You want something classy, something elegant."

"No, I want _this_." Eddie had promised herself that she would let her mother take the lead on this invitations outing—it was, after all, one of the few areas of planning in which she was letting her mother be involved—but she couldn't take it anymore. From lunch to now, it had been nothing but digs at everything from Eddie's outdated winter coat to her uneven mascara—not eyeliner, but _mascara_ —to every single wedding decision she and Jamie had already made. She wanted to be the bigger person here, she really did—but she could only handle so much.

"Eddie, sweetheart, don't be unreasonable," Lena called. "It's like you're auditioning for that show, the one with the spoiled bratty brides."

"It's like _you're_ the one holding the damn camera," Eddie muttered, too quiet for Lena to hear, as she stepped toward the saleswoman to finalize her choice.

* * *

"Stop laughing at me!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" But the amusement continued to rumble from Jamie's chest as he leaned away from Eddie's right hook. "I guess I should disinvite your mom from our anniversary dinner on Monday then." He dodged her again, grinning. "Come on, it couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"It was. Oh, God, it was." Eddie pulled her hand back and raked it through her hair. "Her sense of reality is _so_ screwed up it's not even funny. God, she got on my case because my jacket's from two years ago and my boots aren't brand-new. Like she completely doesn't understand that I don't give a shit! She thinks I can't be happy without tons and tons of money but like—who the hell cares if my jacket is old? It's warm! It does its job!"

Still chuckling, Jamie reached out and pulled her into his chest. "You know what? It's the right thing to do, trying to let your mom be involved. And you survived."

Eddie wrinkled her nose and pushed back so she could sit up straight on the couch. " _Barely_. Oh, but she did have _one_ good thing to say about you today."

"Really? There's a first."

"Yeah. She said that you'll make beautiful babies."

Jamie laughed with renewed vigor. "Well she's not wrong," he offered. "But I hope they take after you more than me. Did you tell her that we're not going to try right away?"

Eddie snorted. "God, I tried. The woman's a damn seesaw. One minute it's _push back the wedding, we need a whole year to plan!_ and the next it's _hurry up and get pregnant right now! Why are you here? You should be having unprotected sex!_ "

Jamie's shoulders continued to shake as he slowly gathered himself. "Okay, I'm almost scared to ask—I'm guessing you didn't tell her about the _other_ way she might end up with grandkids?"

Eddie shook her head. "I couldn't. It's like us dating, and then when we got engaged…it takes me so long to work up to telling her life-changing news like that. I know she won't be happy about it. The best way to break that news is probably just to text her a picture one day, like, 'Look! Here's your foster grandchild!'"

" _If_ we decide to do it," Jamie added.

"Yeah, if," Eddie said, though she hadn't stopped reading about foster care in three weeks and she'd decided that unless Jamie gave a harsh no after the orientation, she absolutely wanted to do it.

"Hey, it'll just be one more thing to add to the list," Jamie said. "The list of decisions you've made that she hates."

Eddie rolled her eyes a little. "Somehow she still hasn't figured out that we have the ultimate reverse psychology thing going on. Whenever she tells me off for something I do, it makes me even more determined about it. Becoming a cop, dating you, even the invitations I picked—I liked them but I wasn't _in love_ with them, but as soon as she told me she hated them I was like, _these are the ones_!"

"Oh, so you're only still with me to spite your mother. That explains so much," Jamie nodded thoughtfully.

"No, come on," Eddie giggled. "That sounded way worse than it was supposed to. It's not what I meant."

Jamie tried to keep a straight face, but the twitch at the corner of his mouth almost gave him away. "So the next time you say you love me, is that _you_ talking? Or is that just you trying to annoy your mom from afar?"

"Every time I say it, it's like a kick to her gut," Eddie purred. She leaned forward and walked her hands across the small gap separating her from Jamie on the couch. "I love you. I love you. I love you, Jamie Reagan."

He leaned back against the arm of the couch and shifted his body down as she crawled all the way on top of him. "You know, if that's true about your mom, then this is like assault," he murmured.

"Are you complaining?"

"Not at all."

Her hands tightened into fists at the shoulders of his t-shirt as she leaned her face toward his. "Good—then let's stop talking about my mom."


	19. Chapter 19

_Tuesday, March 27_

Frank stood as he saw Jamie and Eddie round the corner towards the table. They held hands and she was giggling about something he'd said, and for the millionth time Frank wished Mary could be here to see this. During their other children's engagements, Mary had been by his side as they treated each happy couple to dinner two or three times in the last few months before the wedding. Jamie and Sydney never set a date or got too far into the wedding planning, so tonight was the first time Frank got the opportunity to continue the tradition with his youngest son—and he couldn't help thinking how tearfully elated Mary would be to see their youngest with someone who made him as happy as Eddie did.

"Hey, Dad. Sorry we're late—hit the road work in Midtown," Jamie said.

"No problem," Frank assured. "Just got here myself."

They took their seats and opened their menus. "Wine should be here any minute," Frank continued. "And the specials tonight—there's one that sounded excellent."

They pondered their menus for a moment as the wine and bread appeared, and soon after that they placed their orders.

"So," Frank said, swallowing a sip of wine. "Less than three months to go. How's the planning coming along?"

"Really well so far," Eddie said. "Found a dress last week, though I'm sure Linda and Erin told you all about that adventure, how we had to leave my mom with the ridiculous princess gowns while we snuck away to look at the styles I actually _liked_. Invitations went out on Thursday and it looks like most of the details for the reception are set too."

"Good. Great," Frank replied. "It can be stressful, planning a wedding, but you seem to be handling it well."

"She is, except when her mother's involved," Jamie joked.

Eddie groaned. "Yeah, and I have to meet her this Saturday to talk about flowers. So if I'm not at family dinner on Sunday, you can assume it's because she locked me in a basement so she could take over the whole thing."

"Well, if that happens we've got a good detective in the family who'll be happy to track you down," Frank said.

"Man, I'd love to see Danny get my mom in the box," Eddie smirked. "Honestly my money would be on my mom."

"Really?" Jamie said. "I think Danny could break her."

Eddie shook her head. "Nah, she'd only cooperate with a really good-looking detective. Danny wouldn't do it for her. You, though…"

Frank gave a small closed-mouth smile as Jamie brushed off her joke. "Guess I better go find myself a rabbi then."

"That won't be necessary," Frank said. "Unless you'd like to take a step down in the ranks."

"Not a sergeant yet, Dad," Jamie reminded him.

"No, but you will be."

Jamie's eyes snapped up to his father's face. "Are you saying…?"

Frank nodded. "Three spots opening up in Manhattan precincts in the next few months, and the second in line for promotion would like to stay in Queens. I've been working down the list, personally giving you all the heads-up before the department makes the official announcement next month. By mid-summer, you can expect to be training for your new role as sergeant either in the 5-4 or the 3-5."

"Danny's precinct?"

"That would be interesting," Eddie offered.

Frank nodded. "Yes, possibly. Depends on where the two guys ahead of you choose to go. But Danny doesn't need to know until the announcement," he declared. "No need to work him up when you may not end up in his house."

"We won't say anything," Jamie promised.

"Good—but we're not here to talk shop," Frank said, folding his hands over his place setting. "We're here to talk about you two. And for all the wedding chatter I've heard nothing about a honeymoon."

Jamie and Eddie exchanged a glance before Jamie opened his mouth. "We've talked about it," he admitted. "And we don't think we're going to take one."

"You're not?" Frank questioned.

"We don't think it's the best use of our money right now," Eddie clarified.

"Yeah, we've got some other big things on the horizon," Jamie added. "Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a big trip we're thinking we'll spend the weekend of the wedding in a nice hotel and put the rest of the money towards a car, or finding a bigger place."

"A car?"

"We'll need at least _one_ new one," Eddie said. "The Porsche and the Mustang—not exactly good family cars."

"Family car?" Frank repeated, a smile playing at the corners of his mustache. "And a bigger place? So you're thinking of starting a family right away?"

Eddie reached for Jamie's hand under the table. "Not how you're thinking. Once I make detective we might try for a baby—but actually, a couple weeks ago we went to a foster parent orientation."

Whatever Frank expected to hear, it clearly wasn't _that_. His eyes widened and he opened and closed his mouth before regaining his composure. "Foster parent orientation?"

"I'm surprised you didn't already know—you're the PC," Jamie said.

"You know everything," Eddie finished.

"Well, not this. What prompted the idea? Is it something you've—you've been thinking about for a while?"

"A couple months ago I took a call that had to get ACS involved," Eddie explained. "I got the chance to talk to the ACS worker and—we decided that fostering was something we should look into."

"So we signed up for the orientation," Jamie continued, "just to learn more about it. And we're pretty sure we're going to do it. The city really needs quality foster parents and we both feel strongly that it's a way for us to really do something good."

"We're going to get through the wedding and everything and start the training this summer," Eddie said.

Frank nodded. "It's a great idea, and you're right, something that will let you play a very important role in a child's life. But kids really change a relationship. Having them right away, before you're fully adjusted to married life, could cause quite a big strain on your marriage. I imagine that effect is even greater when you've got the system to deal with on top. I don't think it would hurt to wait a little longer."

"So you _do_ think it's a good idea," Jamie said slowly, digesting.

"I do. I agree you'll make great parents for any child, no matter how that child comes to be in your home. But you don't need to rush into anything so fast after the wedding. Take a few months, a year, just to settle in. Marriage, promotions—kids too? It's a lot all at once."

Eddie shrugged. "It's a pretty long process to get certified. Even if we start over the summer it'll be a while before any kids are placed with us. A few months, at least."

"Yeah—we'd like to get the ball rolling," Jamie said.

Frank nodded. "As long as you can handle all that. You'll both have full plates, working, moving, and the training. What exactly does foster certification process involve? I'm not familiar."

"Well, first we have to decide which agency we'll go through," Jamie said. "Most kids are placed through private agencies that are contracted by ACS, not ACS itself. But we've narrowed it down to three."

"There's thirty hours of training," Eddie said. "It's this class called MAPP—"

"Model Approach to Partnerships and Parenting," Jamie recited.

"Right. And they teach you how the system works, what the agency and the foster parents are responsible for, plus the resources that are available for foster kids," she continued.

"And there's some actual parenting instruction too," Jamie added. "They want to make sure you'll be able to parent kids who've been through trauma and deal with whatever special needs might come up."

"And while we're going through the training, but after we move, we'll have a homestudy to check out where we live. And during that, they'll also interview us about why we want to be foster parents and make sure that we've thought ahead for how a kid will fit into our lifestyle, you know, what we'd do about daycare and stuff."

"And the one other thing is medical, financial, and background check clearances, plus support references."

"Yeah, I think that's it," Eddie said. "But like we said, it takes months."

"I suppose it's good that they're so careful to make sure they're putting children in good homes," Frank mused.

"Theoretically, but from what we've heard, a good number of foster parents in the city are on public support and they only take in foster children for the stipend," Jamie said.

"Which is why it's even more important for us to do it," Eddie gushed. "They need people who are in it for the _kids_ , not the money."

"I'm sure that's true," Frank agreed. "Now, you said daycare—so you're planning on fostering young kids?"

"We think so, yeah," Jamie said.

"For me, at least, I know what I'm doing with younger kids. But I'd have no idea how to parent a teenager right of the bat," Eddie added.

"Jamie, you've been a good mentor to some troubled teens over the years," Frank said.

"Yeah, but mentoring and parenting are different," Jamie said. "I'm with Eddie. Maybe in the future we'll accept older kids but we'd like to ease into it by starting with younger ones. They're always looking for foster parents for sibling sets so we'd be more comfortable with two or three young kids than a teenager, for now."

"I see," Frank said. "And I can't say I disagree with that logic. But multiple young kids, that'll be challenging too."

"It will, but we think we're up for it—or at least we will be when the time comes."

Frank leaned back, nodding, and looked over his son and his fiancée. "And so to set yourselves up for all that, you're skipping out on a real honeymoon."

Eddie shrugged. "We might try to take one later, in a year or two. But for now, yeah, it's not where we want to put our money."

"What if it wasn't your money?"

Jamie raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"If it was on someone else's dime, would you take the trip?"

"We don't want anyone else to—"

"No, hear me out," Frank interrupted softly. "I've been thinking about what to get you two for your wedding but I'm coming up blank. You don't want help paying for the wedding itself, you already have nice furniture and a stocked kitchen—let Pop and me send you on your honeymoon. With the way you two plan to hit the ground running, it sounds like you'll need it."

Jamie and Eddie looked at each other, both speechless. "Um, Dad," Jamie stuttered. "That's really generous of you to offer but we couldn't."

"Sure you could!" Frank exclaimed. "It's either this or monogrammed towels. Tell me, what's your dream honeymoon?"

Eddie's face pinched into a grimace. "Italy. We couldn't possibly ask you to pay for something like that."

"You're not asking," Frank said. "I'm offering. And you might be able to argue with me, but Pop won't take no for an answer."

Jamie knew it would take a great deal of convincing to make Eddie agree to this. She was determined not to accept money from her mother, wanting to prove that they could have a beautiful wedding without the kind of extravagance Lena pushed for. On principle he couldn't see her happily accepting money from his family either.

"He might have to," Jamie sighed. "Really, Dad, it's too much."

"That's for the gift giver to decide, not the receiver," Frank pointed out.

"Really. We just had a nice vacation to California two months ago and that's all we need until we can put together enough for a late honeymoon," Eddie said.

"Look, you two," Frank sighed. "As a father I'm thrilled to hear you're working so hard to be responsible with your money. And as a father, I don't want to miss the chance to give you something really memorable. The money is nothing for me but it'll provide you with priceless memories for the rest of your lives."

"Dad," Jamie deflated.

"You say you'll find the time to do it in the future but let me tell you, that's easier said than done if you'll have any children," Frank pointed out. "I don't want to see you two get ten years down the road and feel you've missed out on a crucial step in your relationship."

Eddie bit her lip, unable to think of anything to say.

"So this'll go one of two ways," Frank said. "Either you agree and you come over this week to book everything, or I tell Baker to think up _her_ dream Italian honeymoon and book it for you and you'll be stuck with whatever she comes up with."

"Dad, Baker's an NYPD detective, not a travel agent," Jamie said.

"Oh, but I'm sure she'd enjoy the break from her normal duties for one day."

"Please don't tell me you'd make her," Eddie groaned.

"Please don't _make_ me make her," Frank retorted.

"Sounds like you're not giving us much of a choice," Jamie said.

"Of course you have a choice," Frank argued. "You accept this graciously and enjoy a week in Italy after the wedding, or we handcuff you both into the limousine and kick you to the curb at JFK, still in your tux and your wedding dress, and you go off to do whatever Baker's cooked up. Now. Which will it be?"


	20. Chapter 20

_Saturday, April 28_

With his hands full of grocery bags and takeout lasagna, Jamie pushed into the apartment and kicked the door closed behind him.

"Eddie?" he called. Last he'd heard she was still in Manhattan for a dress fitting with Lena, Nicky and Erin, and he wasn't sure if she'd made it home yet.

"In here."

Jamie untangled his hands from all the bags and followed her voice to the open bathroom door as the _Tarzan_ soundtrack filled his ears. "Uh—what's going on?"

Eddie pulled the shower curtain aside. She sat cross-legged in the center of the bathtub, chopsticks in her right hand as she used her left to wipe away the stream of water flowing over her face from above. "I'm recovering." And she reached out to get another bite of lo mein from the takeout container sitting on top of the closed toilet seat.

It took all Jamie's willpower not to burst out laughing. " _Recovering_?"

She groaned at the smile she could hear in his voice. "Don't you dare judge me, Reagan. _You_ only had to spend an hour with that woman today." She nodded towards her phone, which was safely resting on the sink. "You can turn that off if you want."

He reached for the phone and paused the music. "That woman? Your mom?"

"No, the tooth fairy. Of course, my mom."

Jamie moved her food to his lap as he sat down on the toilet lid. "So she didn't let up after lunch, huh?"

"Let up? God, she's _racist_ , Jamie. My mother is a full-blown hood-wearing racist. I'm surprised she hasn't gone around burning crosses in people's front yards!"

Jamie pressed his lips together, knowing that she wasn't done.

"At least Erin and Danny—I know they're not thrilled about the foster care thing either, but at least their reasons _make sense_!" Eddie said, her voice inching higher and higher above its normal octave. "But saying we shouldn't do it because we might end up with a _black_ child? It was so bad that even Erin was talking about all the reasons we _should_ be foster parents. Oh my God. I thought I'd seen the worst from my mom. But no, apparently not."

"I know," Jamie agreed. "It made me sick to my stomach to hear her talk like that. But it _is_ a pretty big bomb to drop on her. She'll get used to the idea just like everyone else."

Eddie shook her head and reached for more food. "She won't, though. If that's how she thinks then I don't want her around our kids—foster or otherwise. I don't want them learning to think like that!"

Jamie just sighed. Over lunch today they'd told Lena about their plans to become foster parents and it had gone poorly, to say the least. Last week his own family had met the news with mixed reactions—Linda and Nicky were excited, while Danny and Erin raised doubts that were similar to Jamie's own questions when Eddie first brought up the idea—but Lena had been absolutely _scandalized_. Slack-jawed with a hand pressed to her chest, she'd demanded to know why Eddie and Jamie would ever want to bring _those_ children into their home, children with _issues_ and _problems_ , children who didn't _look_ like them. "People will think you've been sleeping around with black men!" she'd cried. "Those kids have _problems_ —people will see them in public and think you're an awful parent!"

"Well, if she really refuses the background check, she won't be able to spend tons of time around our kids anyway," Jamie pointed out.

"Thank _God_ for that," Eddie muttered. "She can't. I can't let her walk around telling _our kids_ that they're anything _less_ because they're in foster care or maybe a different race than us. Does she really not understand that humans are _humans_?"

Jamie shrugged. He'd been at lunch; he'd heard all the awful things Lena had said. He'd had the rest of the afternoon to move on, though. He was sure Lena had continued to rag on poor Eddie throughout their entire trip to the dress shop.

No wonder she was crumpled in a heap at the bottom of the shower, shoveling Chinese food into her mouth as makeup ran down her face.

"Honestly, Eddie, what did you expect her to say?" he finally managed. "You were nervous going in—we knew it wasn't going to be an easy discussion."

Her eyes flashed with a dangerous spark that sent a literal shiver down Jamie's spine. "But you weren't! How are you always so _okay_? How can you just brush her off like that and _not care_? It doesn't _bother_ you, to hear her spewing all that bullshit? It's one thing for her to disagree with our decision but she crossed the line, Jamie, going where she did."

Jamie exhaled loudly and gave her a small smile. "Of course it bothers me. What, could you not tell from my face during lunch when she was rolling on like that? But _someone_ had to keep you from jumping the leash and strangling her."

Eddie scowled. "I hate you sometimes," she groaned. "It's not fair, how you can just _deal_ with her like she's not the devil incarnate."

"She just knows how to push your buttons," Jamie soothed. "You know she does it on purpose. Her entire goal is to get a rise out of you."

"Well, she's good at it."

"And listen, we will never let her bring that kind of toxicity around our kids. We don't owe her anything just because she's your mom. If she can't be a positive figure in their lives then she doesn't get to be there at all."

Eddie raised her eyebrows at him. This was the opposite of his normal speech after each encounter with Lena—usually, after calming Eddie down, he kept on with his old mantra that as long as Lena seemed interested in being a part of their lives, they had to at least make _some_ effort to let her. He'd given the same spiel so many times during the wedding planning process that she'd practically memorized it.

"You'd never cut her off," she challenged.

He shrugged. "It's one thing for her to act that way to _us_. We're adults, we can handle it. But kids change that whole equation. Yeah, it'll suck if we can't let them know their grandmother—but if they can't have a healthy relationship with her, then that's how it'll have to be."

Eddie shoved her chopsticks into the food container and crossed her arms. "I hope we _only_ get foster kids she won't approve of. Hispanic, black, special needs—if they call us for some nice, healthy white baby I'm literally going to say no. I want to _show_ her that we will love every single kid because _in spite of her_ I turned into a good person who is capable of actual, real love."

"Ohh-kay," Jamie groaned. He picked up the chopsticks and took a bite of noodles, smirking at Eddie's resulting scowl. "Come on, now. You can be mad at her all you want but don't let her get in your head."

"She's _already_ in my head, Jamie," Eddie snapped. She lunged for the chopsticks and pulled one out of his hand. "I know we said we'd wait, that we're not going to start the process until a month or two after the wedding, but I'm literally ready to go turn in the paperwork _right now_."

"Right this second?" Jamie asked, his eyes flicking pointedly up and down her naked body.

She scowled and swiped blindly for the shower curtain behind her right shoulder. On the third or fourth try she grabbed it and yanked it closed. "You know what I mean."

Jamie leaned to the side and peeked around the edge of the curtain. "I do," he grinned. "Do you want the rest of this or would you rather have lasagna from Luigi's?"

"Lasagna from Luigi's?"

"Yeah, I grabbed it on the way home." Without waiting for her reply, Jamie got up and carried the lo mein to the kitchen as Eddie squawked behind him about where he was taking her food. He switched that container for the lasagna, grabbed two forks, and detoured into the bedroom to lose his clothes.

When he returned to the bathroom, Eddie had pulled the curtain back again and she was leaning over the edge of the tub, trying to see what he was doing. She frowned when she saw that he was naked.

"What are you doing?"

He reached up to adjust the showerhead so that the stream landed as far towards the back of the shower as possible. "Scoot," he ordered.

She obeyed, shifting back until she was under the water again. He ducked under the water and folded himself into the tub in front of her, sideways, carefully shielding the food.

"What are you doing?" she asked again, accepting the fork he handed her.

"You didn't look like you're done recovering," he explained simply. "But I want to eat dinner with my fiancée."

"In the shower?"

He grinned and started to saw his fork into the lasagna. "Hey, baby, whatever it takes."


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Enjoy some super fluffy, very pointless Wednesday morning chitchat. (Peace out, Lena!)

* * *

 _Wednesday, May 30_

Eddie raked a hand through her hair to fight against the breeze and squinted up from her phone as she heard Nicky call out her name.

"Hey, sorry, I would've come to you," she said, pushing off the rough precinct wall.

"No big deal," Nicky said. "I saw you from a distance so I just came over."

"Well then, shall we?"

Nicky nodded and they headed up the sidewalk to catch the subway to Brooklyn.

"So—you have to tell me what the hell happened on Monday," Nicky demanded. "Jamie said he had to _drag_ you out of your mom's Memorial Day thing?"

"Ugh," Eddie groaned, "he told you about that?"

"No, except that it was a rough night. What happened?"

"Long story," Eddie sighed. "But my mom is out of the picture now. Ever since she found out about the foster care thing she's been saying some really awful things about it, about any future kids we'll have, but the other night she just went over the top."

"What do you mean, out of the picture?"

"Jamie told her that if she is _that_ against it—and none of her reasons are valid, remember, they're all bigoted and racist and awful—if it's at the point where she can't even _talk_ about anything else around us because she's so obsessed with it, then she's not welcome anymore. It was pretty great, actually. Jamie doesn't usually let her get to him but between the nasty things my mom was saying about me and about foster kids it was like he'd finally had enough."

"Oh my God—so like, she's not coming to the wedding?"

Eddie shrugged. "Probably not. If she shows up unannounced and tries to screw it all up, well, there will be plenty of cops there to escort her ass right back out."

Nicky snickered. "Sounds like you should hand out her picture beforehand and have everybody on the lookout—like she's a perp."

"That's not out of the question," Eddie said, smiling a little.

"Aren't you at least a little sad about it?" Nicky asked. "That your mom won't be at your wedding?"

Eddie shrugged. "Honestly, no. I mean, you've met her a few times—you know how awful she is. She's been the most stressful thing out of all this. So really it's a weight off my shoulders. Now the only thing I have to worry about is marrying Jamie."

"Well, and moving," Nicky pointed out.

"Oh, don't remind me," Eddie groaned.

"Yeah, how's it working to convince Jamie to move to Manhattan?"

"It's not. He says it's because he doesn't want to live in one of the precincts where we work but like, Manhattan's a whole lot bigger than the Twelfth and the 5-4. Really he just loves Brooklyn too much."

"If you stay in Brooklyn Heights, that'll be a nice compromise," Nicky observed. "Close to Manhattan but—still in Brooklyn! Still close to the family."

"I think that's what'll happen. There's a two-bedroom coming available in our building in a couple of months and that's probably where we'll end up. Moving will definitely be a lot easier if we just have to go two floors up."

" _Just_ a two-bedroom?" Nicky pressed. "You don't think that's a little small?"

"Hey, one step at a time, missy," Eddie chortled.

"I'm just saying, you never know," Nicky said. "With foster care you could go from just you and Jamie to having three or four kids overnight!"

"That's true—but it's low on my list of things to think about these days. There's the wedding, honeymoon, move, Jamie's promotion, and a million other things to take care of between now and then."

"How _excited_ are you about getting married?" Nicky asked, bouncing as she walked.

Eddie grinned and hunched her shoulders in a small laugh. "Very. You know, I thought I'd get more and more nervous the closer we get to the wedding. I mean, based on how nervous I was last year when we moved in together I thought it would get bad—but so far, that's not how it is."

"Really?" Nicky asked. "No cold feet at all?"

"Not yet. But talk to me in about three weeks," Eddie laughed. "Really, though—it's just—it's Jamie. Like, I get to spend the rest of my life with him and we already have so much to look forward to just in the next few months. Nothing to be nervous about. All excited."

"Aw, you guys are so cute."

Eddie giggled. "We are, aren't we? It's kind of sickening, actually. I never saw myself being _that_ girl, the one who's super, head-over-heels, goofy in love. But here I am."

"It's like a fairytale," Nicky sighed. "I mean, Jamie had a crush on you for so long it's not even funny. None of us ever thought he'd ask you out. And then you go on vacation together and you come back and announce that you're in _love_ …"

"It wasn't _that_ easy," Eddie scoffed. "That trip—it was like three years' worth of crap came to the surface and God, I had to work _so_ hard to make him finally dig his head out of his ass."

"What do you mean?" Nicky said. "You guys finally admitted that you liked each other. What's hard about that?"

"Have you _met_ Jamie? He's always Mister Control and he is physically incapable of breaking any rules. Like he liked me but he never even considered actually _doing_ something about it because technically, when we were partners, it was off-limits."

"But you just got new partners."

"Right? It seems so obvious but for him, at the time, it wasn't. And I know part of it was he didn't want to give up all the time we spent in the car together but…at that conference I really had to show him that there were _better_ things on the other side of the partnership line, if you know what I mean."

Nicky grinned and nudged Eddie. "Wow, look at you, going after what you want. What'd you do?"

Eddie shrugged nonchalantly. "I may or may not have pretended to be his girlfriend at this aircraft carrier museum—like, to the point that we convinced every other person in our tour group that we were together. And we went to the beach—pro tip, that's a _great_ place to flirt. Plus there was—ah, never mind."

"What? You have to tell me now," Nicky urged.

"I just _really_ teased him the whole night we were at this fancy banquet thing. Actually I was pretty over-the-top considering we weren't dating yet. But after all that when he still didn't break—I was about ready to give up. I thought he must not have really had feelings for me."

Nicky snorted at the ridiculousness of that idea. "He must've been better at hiding it around you than everyone else, then."

"I figured I was being so clear that if he didn't pick up the slack it must mean he wasn't interested," Eddie explained. "But then—we went to this awful car museum with your grandpa's friend from Long Island and oh my God, I was going to _kill_ Jamie for getting us into that. Then that night, the last night, he told me we had dinner plans and I figured it was with a bunch of important cops, like all the other things he dragged me to that whole trip, but it wasn't. It was just us."

"I will never get tired of hearing this story," Nicky sighed. "It's so perfect."

Eddie giggled. "Yeah, it kind of was. He had this whole big speech and basically, it turned out that all my little tricks had worked and he finally realized he just _couldn't_ live without me." She finished with a dramatic flourish as Nicky collapsed into laughter beside her.

They both took a moment to recover as they squished their way onto a crowded train. Then Nicky took out her phone and began to scroll down the to-do list they'd established.

"Okay, so if we get all the centerpieces put together today, then this weekend we can just worry about the decorations for the wedding party table," she declared. "But did we say when we're going to put together all the tiny baggies of M&Ms?"

"Jamie volunteered to do those himself," Eddie said.

"Oh, good. So most of the reception stuff is taken care of."

"I think so, yeah, but when your mom gets home I want to make sure she's on the same page with everything."

"Oh, she is," Nicky promised. "I swear she's more stressed out about your wedding than you are."

Eddie laughed off Nicky's comment. "Probably, because for her the wedding is _it_ —she doesn't have all the after-wedding stuff to look forward to."

Nicky flinched. "Can we not go there? Jamie's my uncle."

"Oh, relax, I just mean _being_ married in general," Eddie assured her. "Anyway. Reception will be mostly done, except for the really last-minute stuff. And we pick up our marriage license next week. So after that—" she sighed wistfully "—the only thing to deal with is the part where we actually _get married_."


	22. Chapter 22

_A/N: Jamie is the best cure for wedding jitters!_

* * *

 _Monday, June 18_

"Jamie? Have you seen my blue sweater?"

Jamie peeked his head around the doorframe into the bedroom, where Eddie sat cross-legged on the floor surrounded by her open suitcase and piles of folded clothes. "The really warm one? You know it's going to be around eighty every day we're there, right?"

"But it's really cute and I want to bring it."

Jamie frowned. "Well, I have no idea. You haven't worn it since the winter."

"I have! I wore it a month ago when we had that random cold front," she argued shrilly.

Jamie stepped all the way into the bedroom, palms forward in front of his shoulders in de-escalation. "You okay?"

Eddie's shoulders dropped. "I want that sweater!"

"Eddie."

"What?"

"You've been jittery and weird all morning."

"Maybe if I could find the damn sweater—"

"You don't need a sweater to spend a week in Italy in the middle of summer. Just take a deep breath, okay?"

Eddie scowled at him as she deflated.

"Now. You want to tell me what's actually wrong?"

"Nothing," she insisted. "I've had a mental packing list going for two weeks and I can't find half the things I wanted to bring—"

"It's cute," Jamie remarked, smirking at her, "that you think you'll spend any amount of time wearing clothes on our honeymoon."

Rolling her eyes, Eddie reached for a nearby sandal and softly flung it at his chest.

He caught it and tossed it into her empty suitcase as he sank down to the floor as well. He pushed aside a small pile of shirts so he could scoot closer to her. "You're not having second thoughts about this whole thing, are you?"

"Of course not, Jamie, why would you even say that?"

"Just checking," he maintained. "You wouldn't be the first bride to have that happen. Hell, you wouldn't be _my_ first—"

"Oh, relax," Eddie muttered. "I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me."

"I know," he smiled. "But—seems like you've been getting more and more nervous the last couple of days."

"Well—yeah," she admitted. "Because everyone insists that we can't be with each other leading up to the wedding. God, what kind of BS tradition is that?"

"We're still going to see each other every day between now and then," Jamie reminded her.

"Sure—if we run into each other during shift change," Eddie grumbled. "You know what? I understand not seeing each other before the ceremony on your wedding day. It's dumb, but I understand—but _five_ nights apart? Isn't that extreme? We haven't spent five nights apart in almost a year and a half!"

"Hey, we can switch if you want," Jamie said. "I'll be happy to hang out in a fancy hotel and get pampered all week. You can stay here and pack up the apartment."

Eddie groaned. "No thanks."

"Come on. You know that a few days apart will make it just _that_ much better on Saturday."

"Yeah—everyone keeps saying that but I don't think it's true," Eddie grumbled.

"It's all about the anticipation."

"No—it _needs_ to be all about my sanity, and you're the only person who'd be able to keep me calm but you're not going to _be_ there. I don't want to have to put up with everyone else, Jamie, I just want to be with you until all this wedding shit is over."

"When all this wedding shit is over you'll have a whole lot longer than five days to just be with me. And other than dealing with your mom you've been just about the calmest bride I've ever heard of, the entire time we've been planning this wedding," Jamie pointed out.

"Yeah—because _you_ were there!"

A small laugh rumbled from Jamie's chest and he tugged on Eddie's elbow until she leaned into his embrace. "You'll be okay. It's not like phone calls are off-limits. And you still have work and the last-minute wedding stuff to keep your mind off missing your wonderful, awesome, _hot_ fiancé."

Eddie grabbed his hands and moved them off so she could sit up straight. "You know, I never realized how big your head is back when we were riding together."

"Hey, it's not egotistical when it's just the _truth_."

Eddie rolled her eyes at the ceiling but she couldn't stop the corner of her mouth from twitching up. "You're the worst."

"And somehow I still got you to marry me."

"Oh, buddy, there's still time," Eddie teased.

"Aw—you say you need _me_ to stay sane, well, I need you just to exist. If you leave me right now I'll just shrivel up into nothing."

"Come on, Reagan," Eddie smirked, leaning in to kiss him. "Can't you take a joke?"

"Any joke but that one."

"Fair enough."

"And seriously," he complained, his face losing the feigned hurt expression in favor of an incredulous frown. "Are you _never_ going to stop with the Reagan thing? It'll be your name too, five days from now."

"Oh, you can rest assured, Reagan—I'll still be calling you that when we're ninety in our little nursing home rocking chairs, especially if you keep acting like it bugs you."

"Fine then. I'll keep calling you Janko for the rest of our lives." He crossed his arms and set his jaw as if challenging her with this declaration.

"Fine," Eddie shrugged breezily. "I'm keeping it for work anyways—doesn't bother me."

"You're impossible," Jamie groaned. "Maybe five days apart is a good thing. It'll be the last little bit of peace and quiet I'm gonna get for the rest of my life."

"Oh, you _know_ you're gonna miss me," Eddie said.

"Yeah, I am," he admitted, grinning.

" _But_ ," she said, eyes narrowing, "I could make it a little easier on you, give you something to remember me by."

Innocently Jamie glanced around at all her clothes. "Uh, aren't you supposed to check into the hotel before your tour?"

" _You're_ the one who said I shouldn't even bother packing clothes," she reminded him. She reached for his hand as she stood up, pulling him with her.

Jamie's head twitched towards one elevated shoulder. "Well, guess I can't argue with that."


	23. Chapter 23

_Thursday, June 21_

Three sharp knocks startled Eddie out of her lazy post-bachelorette party stupor. She tore her eyes away from the TV and frowned at the door—Nicky and her other bridesmaids were supposed to come for lunch today, but that wasn't for another hour and Nicky had a key to her hotel room. Ugh—could the cleaning staff really not bother to read the _Do Not Disturb_ sign on the doorknob?

She rolled off the bed and padded to the door. With the chain still fastened, she opened it and peered out.

" _Mom_?"

"Can I come in?" Lena asked impatiently.

"You're not supposed to be here."

"Yet here I am."

"How'd you even get up the elevator?" Eddie scowled. "You need a room key to go higher than the third floor."

"Oh, that wasn't hard. Just told a nice gentleman that I forgot my room key and my daughter would let me in if he just got me up. Will you let me in or not?"

Every fiber in Eddie's being screamed at her to say no. She hadn't so much as heard from Lena since she and Jamie left her annual Memorial Day cookout early and it had been the most peaceful three weeks of Eddie's engaged life.

"What do you want?" Eddie sighed.

"To talk to my daughter," Lena said. "You _are_ getting married in two days, you know."

Before Eddie knew what she was doing she closed the door to undo the chain and then let Lena in. It was as if subconsciously she knew Lena wouldn't leave without fighting for whatever it was she wanted. "Did you go knock on every single damn door in the hotel until you found me?"

"No, sweetheart—when you're the mother of the bride just in this morning from out of town, the front desk will tell you anything you need to know."

Eddie ran her palm down her face as she closed the door. Lena stepped all the way into the room and looked around, her nostrils flaring in disgust. It was a bit of a mess, to say the least, but Eddie's bridesmaids were supposed to be her only visitors and _they_ certainly didn't care.

Finally Lena perched stiffly on the edge of the second bed. She winced in disapproval as she moved aside a lacy purple bra—Eddie was pretty sure it belonged to Kara, who had left in a set of Eddie's sweats last night—and watched as Eddie slouched onto the unmade bed.

"What do you want to talk about?" Eddie said shortly. "You have about five minutes. I need to get ready for lunch and then it's my last tour until after my honeymoon."

"Yes, about that honeymoon," Lena began. "I know I said this before. I'm _shocked_ that you'll take money from Jamie's family but you won't accept anything from me."

"For the last time, it's our wedding gift from Jamie's dad and grandpa. And we're covering about a quarter of it ourselves. There's a difference between them doing something _really_ nice for us and you, with how you've spit on every single decision we've made. We don't want your hundred-thousand-dollar dream wedding, Mom."

"Sweetheart, would you let me talk?" Lena snapped.

Eddie rolled her eyes but shut her mouth.

"I went to see your father over the weekend."

That got Eddie's attention. As far as she knew, the only thread holding together her parents' relationship—besides the money Lena would lose access to if they divorced—was one phone conversation every week or two. Lena visited Armin around their anniversary each year but other than that she _never_ made the trek to the prison.

"I told him how _awful_ you've been since getting engaged, how you just go against every single suggestion I make and you won't let me do _anything_ important for your wedding—"

Eddie loudly exhaled her disagreement.

"Anyway, he's quite sad that you wouldn't wait another ten months so that he could be there, but he understands. He knows you have to get on with your life. And I told him that you _are_ —that you're planning to accept disadvantaged orphan children into your home, how Jamie's being promoted next month and your own promotion doesn't seem too far behind. And he says that he's proud of you."

Eddie's gaze focused on her fingernails, the green French tips she'd gotten yesterday to match the ribbon of her bouquet. It crossed her mind that if Lena noticed her choice in wedding manicure, she might keel over dead from the sheer _indignity_. That was easier to focus on than the heavy sadness that settled over her at the mention of her father—how, even though she never spent much time imagining her wedding as a little girl, she _did_ assume back then that he would be there. She and Jamie had talked about it early in their engagement; she missed the memories, but not so much _him_ , and in the context of the last few years it actually would've felt weird to her, having him there.

"And it got me to thinking, sweetheart. I'm proud of you too." Lena sighed heavily, as if it was exhausting just to say the words. "I'm proud that you are so determined to find happiness even under such limiting conditions as two public servants' salaries. And I'm proud that you're—that you're willing to go so far as to sacrifice even more of your own comfort for the good of all the poor children."

Any other time Eddie would've cringed at her mother's word choice at just about every turn of her monologue—but this was the closest Lena would ever come to applauding all of Eddie's adult choices and she wasn't about to stop her now.

"You're about to marry such an attractive young man, one who clearly cherishes you despite all of his shortcomings. You've found a career—certainly not one that I would've wished for you, but an acceptable one nonetheless. And you're soon to be a guardian to orphaned children, or maybe someday even a mother to your own."

"We've been over this," Eddie groaned. "Most foster children are not actual orphans, and I will be a mother from the moment any child comes through my door regardless of whether I gave birth to them."

"Hush," Lena said sharply. "Don't interrupt your mother. I'm trying to tell you that it got me to thinking, and perhaps I've been a bit hard on you about certain things in the last couple of months."

 _You think?!_ —Eddie managed to swallow the words before they found their way out of her mouth.

"And though I may not always show it well, and admittedly I would've done many things differently if I were you, I truly am proud that you're my daughter. I know what your fiancé said but I'd really like to be at your wedding."

Eddie bit her lip. "Yeah, well—that's not only my decision. It's Jamie's too. I'll have to see what he thinks."

Really it was just an excuse and she knew Jamie would leave it up to her. Despite Lena's rather condescending attempt at—was this an apology? Maybe not by normal standards, but this _was_ Lena, after all. Despite this attempt at bridging both recent and longstanding rifts in their relationship, Eddie wasn't convinced she _wanted_ Lena at her wedding. She'd had weeks to get used to the idea of her absence and she hadn't been lying all the times she'd told Jamie or the Reagans that life would be easier without Lena there. She would do nothing but frustrate Eddie, rile her up, before what was supposed to be the happiest moment of her life.

"I hope you'll have me," Lena sniffed haughtily. "Even if you choose not to welcome your own mother, though, I need to give you your wedding gift."

Eddie grimaced as her shoulders fell. "Mom—I don't know what you're about to try and pull forty-eight hours before my wedding—"

Lena rifled through her designer purse and came up with a small box professionally wrapped in gold paper and a lacy ribbon. "Just open it, sweetheart."

With something of a defeated sigh, Eddie gently slid the ribbon off the box. She expected jewelry, maybe expensive earrings or a necklace to replace the forty-dollar piece she planned to wear that Lena had spent so much time complaining about. Eddie had never loved to receive jewelry as a gift—very few of her friends shared her taste, and Lena _certainly_ didn't. Plus Eddie didn't put a whole lot of effort into accessorizing her outfits most of the time, and so she thought of expensive jewelry as somewhat impractical. But if it was _just_ jewelry—she'd accept it. She could think of worse things Lena might try to pass off as a gift.

She lifted the lid off the box and her brain snapped back to reality. There _was_ something sparkly—a round silver medallion engraved with her married initials, EJR. But more important was what the medallion was attached to— _car keys_.

Frowning, Eddie pulled the keys out of the box. "Um—Mom?"

Lena sighed, her lips pursed as if she was dissatisfied with her own gift. "Well, I don't suppose you'll be able to drive your children around in the front seat of your Porsche."

"Wh—what?"

"I heard you and Jamie talking at the meeting with the caterer a little ways back," Lena explained. "I know you were planning to trade in your car for something a little more family-friendly. But this way, you don't have to."

Eddie let out a small, disbelieving laugh. "Seriously? You bought us a car?"

"Yes—and it's a _practical_ one, too. I would've preferred to buy you something nicer; my Mercedes GLS has served me quite well and I've also heard great things about the Porsche SUVs. But I figured you wouldn't welcome a car of that quality, coming from me. So it's a Chevrolet Equinox—dark blue, leather interior, all the upgrades and features available. Safe family car, I think. It's waiting at the dealer up at home, completely paid for. I'll just need you, or Jamie I suppose, to come and sign the papers. And I know how hard parking is in the city—so you just leave your car at home and it's yours whenever you want it back. But no need to sell it."

The swell of emotion in Eddie's chest caught her completely off guard. _Her_ mother, _Lena Janko_ , actually doing something nice? Something genuinely thoughtful? She couldn't remember the last time she'd done something like this without an ulterior motive, namely, to call attention or make herself look good. But Lena's irritating tone aside, Eddie didn't smell any of that here.

"Thank you, Mom," she finally managed. "This is—this will be huge for us. It really, really means a lot."

Lena nodded in curt satisfaction. "You're welcome. I hope you and Jamie can put it to good use for all the children."

Eddie scooted off the edge of the bed and lunged forward to embrace her mother in a stiff hug. "We will. Trust me, trust me, we will."

Lena returned the hug for a moment before shifting so that Eddie let go. "Well," she sighed. "I suppose I should get going. You don't want to be late for your lunch." She smoothed her hands along her slacks and adjusted her purse on her shoulder as she stood up.

"Um, yeah," Eddie said softly. She knew this was the part where she told Lena that all was forgiven, that she was invited to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding—but she needed to process for a minute.

Lena took one step towards the door before turning back to reach for Eddie's hands. She pursed her lips with a click of her tongue, "Really, sweetheart? Green tips? A bit tacky for your own wedding, don't you think?"

* * *

So, Lena's not _all_ bad, or maybe it's just Armin's level-headed influence talking. Should Eddie and Jamie re-invite Lena to the wedding festivities or nah? I'm not sold either way quite yet, so make an argument :) -Sandy


	24. Chapter 24

_Friday, June 22_

"And after that, the Father pronounces you husband and wife, Jamie gets to kiss his bride, and then the party starts! So, for the recessional…"

The wedding party tittered at Erin's enthusiasm but stayed in their places at the altar—Erin, the master of rehearsal ceremonies, had already snapped at a couple of people who let minds and bodies wander during the practice run.

Jamie kept his hands in Eddie's and craned his neck over his shoulder so he could see his sister. "Can we go back to that second to last thing? I think we should practice that."

Erin glanced up from her paper, frowning, without processing his question. "Um—what? So you take your bouquet back, Eddie, and then as Mr. and Mrs. Reagan, you'll go first, straight up the aisle—"

Eddie's face brightened into a smile as she heard Jamie let out a groan. In a smooth motion he tugged her closer, dropped her hands, and found her waist. Her hands fisted his suit jacket lapels as their lips met in a purposefully over-the-top display of affection. Everybody seemed entertained—even Frank's body shook with quiet laughter from the front pew—except for Erin, who just rolled her eyes.

When they finally stopped sucking each other's faces—because really, that's what they were doing—their foreheads tipped together as Erin loudly cleared her throat.

"May I continue?" she asked curtly.

Eddie finally broke the moment, leaning to the side so she could see Erin over Jamie's shoulder. "Yeah," she giggled. "Sorry."

"Okay," Erin called out, once again addressing the entire group. "Our happy couple leaves first and then our flower girls and ring bearer follow—make sure you hold the baby's hand, buddy. After that each bridesmaid falls in with her escort and goes on out. You don't have to go slow or time your steps like when you enter, but you shouldn't sprint up the aisle either. Got it? Let's go ahead and run through that and we'll all meet back in the staging room. Jamie and Eddie—music's playing, you just got married, you're happy—go on and start."

Grinning over at him, Eddie slid her arm through Jamie's as they bounced down the steps. She literally skipped up the aisle, pulling the laughing Jamie half a step behind. Since Monday afternoon they'd only seen each other in passing at the precinct—thank goodness Jamie wasn't transferring over to the 5-4 for another few weeks or they wouldn't have even had _that_ —and she was so excited to be with him tonight that she hadn't worried at all about the little details about the rehearsal. Sure, it helped that she had someone as responsible as Erin running the show. But right now Eddie didn't think she'd have cared even if _Danny_ was in charge.

It had been a very long week—but maybe that extended separation hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

At the back of the chapel they turned around to help the kids. Kara Walsh's six-year-old son was supposed to be escorting the two flower girls, Matt Greene's 18-month-old little girl and the four-year-old daughter of Eddie's high school friend and bridesmaid Shannon. Greene's baby was really just there to be cute (and to bug Lena, who couldn't _believe_ that Eddie would feature such a young child in her wedding—what if she cried? Misbehaved? Walked the wrong way?). She'd spend the ceremony on Greene's lap in the second row, and Eddie and Jamie were fully prepared to move on without her during the real thing if she couldn't handle it. But tonight she'd done great.

Eddie scooped up the toddler and Jamie high-fived the two bigger kids as the rest of the wedding party filed out. The last few spectators trailed behind.

Alaina Greene took the baby and spun away. Jamie found Eddie's hand and shouldered his way through the small sea of people, looking for the young man who was about to get a special assignment.

"Thompson!"

Jamie's rookie, who wasn't technically a rookie anymore, looked for the source of the voice until he saw Jamie. "Yeah, Reagan."

"Hey, hey, come here."

"Yeah—you wanted to talk to me?"

Jamie nodded as Eddie tucked herself behind his arm and rested her chin on his shoulder. "We do. We've got a project for you tonight, at dinner, and tomorrow."

"Don't laugh when you hear it," Eddie added. "It's not a joke at all. This is a hundred percent serious."

Jamie nodded. "We need you to babysit Eddie's mom."

Despite Eddie's warning, Thompson couldn't hold in a snicker. "Babysit your _mom_?"

"Yes," Eddie affirmed. "Listen. There's a reason she's not here right now—the rehearsal would never have gone so smoothly if she was allowed. She would've—"

"Complained about everything?" Thompson guessed. "Reagan's told me a few stories."

"Yeah," Eddie breathed.

"She wasn't going to come to the wedding at all, until yesterday," Jamie explained. "We'd asked her to stay away. But in light of recent events she'll actually be there tomorrow. And she's joining us for dinner tonight as well."

"Okay…"

"Your job is to keep her busy," Jamie explained. "Distract her so that she doesn't have a chance to mouth off to anybody or, especially, bother Eddie."

"How do I do that?" Thompson asked hesitantly.

"You're her _type_ ," Eddie smirked.

"Her—her type?"

"Yeah. You're tall, cute, strong—she's got a thing for guys with brown eyes and—"

"He gets it," Jamie groaned, bending his elbow into Eddie's stomach.

She giggled. "Look. My mom's a married woman. And she does have _some_ conscience, I think. So we're not asking you to get inappropriate or weird or anything. Just—follow her around like a puppy dog. Pay attention to her. Act like every word out of her mouth is the most interesting thing you've ever heard. And, sure, get a little flirty. Whatever you have to do to keep her out of everyone else's way."

Thompson grimaced. "Um—do I really have to?"

Jamie shrugged. "Hey, you ragged on me that you don't have a bigger role in the ceremony. This is your ticket."

"I meant being a groomsman, Reagan, not an old lady magnet."

Eddie immediately pointed one finger up at Thompson's chest. "Tip number one: don't call her an old lady when she can hear you."

Thompson's cheeks pinked.

"And hey, you're off the hook for your usher duties so long as you stick to Eddie's mom like glue," Jamie said. He knew Thompson wasn't truly upset about his minor role—it had been a running joke in their patrol car since Jamie and Eddie picked their wedding party back in February.

Thompson cocked his head, considering. "Hmm. That might get you a deal."

Jamie nodded in approval. "Great. Lena's meeting us at the restaurant and we'll introduce you. Then you'll have all day tomorrow to get to know each other."

"Wait—does this extend all the way through the reception?" Thompson asked. "Because, uh, I may have had other goals as far as the reception's concerned, if you know what I mean."

Eddie rolled her eyes and groaned dramatically. "Most of the people who'll be there are _cops_ , Thompson."

"So?" the kid said. "That just means my shield won't be quite so impressive. I've got other moves."

"Alright," Jamie chortled. "Just stick with Lena all of tonight and tomorrow, from the time you get here until the end of the ceremony. We'll play it by ear for the reception. Deal?"

"Yeah, fine."

"Great." Jamie clapped his partner's shoulder. "We'll catch you at the restaurant."

Thompson moved away as Jamie and Eddie searched for Erin to go over the details of the rehearsal.

"You think he'll be able to do it?" Eddie murmured.

"Keep your mom busy? Nah," Jamie scoffed. "But really what I'm worried about is keeping her away from you while you're getting ready. I know you don't want to see her before the ceremony. But once it starts she'll be fine, don't you think?"

"I think we should have the Father skip the part where he asks if anyone objects to our union," Eddie muttered.

"She _wouldn't_ ," Jamie said.

"A hundred bucks."

"Fifteen hours from now, my money's your money anyway," Jamie reminded her. "But I'll warn Thompson, tell him if your mom sneezes too loudly he can cuff her and book her for disorderly conduct."

"Yes, that's _exactly_ what we need," Eddie goaded. " _Mother of the bride arrested at PC's son's wedding_. I think Garrett would have an aneurysm."

"Eh, maybe," Jamie offered. "But it won't matter for us. We're ditching that reception at four o'clock and flying off to Rome either way. It'll be old news by the time we get back."

"And your dad might be in the market for a new DCPI."

Erin appeared out of nowhere as the wedding party began to head for the front doors. "There you guys are!" she exclaimed. "So. That all went great. I think things are all set—do you?"

Eddie nodded.

"And hey, even if something doesn't go perfect, as long as I leave here with that ring on her finger," Jamie said, his eyes sparkling as he smiled at Eddie. "It'll be the most perfect day of my life."


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: For mental picture purposes, let's say Eddie's dress is the same one Vanessa wore on the cover of _Sophisticated Weddings_. Not super complex or overstated, just elegant and beautiful. Enjoy!

* * *

 _Saturday, June 23_

"Lena! Hello! You look beautiful as always."

"Jamie," Lena sniffed. "Where's your bride?"

"Oh, you know—I don't think she's here yet," Jamie lied.

Lena's eyebrows inched towards her hairline. "The ceremony starts in sixty minutes and she's not _here_ yet?"

"Yeah. The photographer liked the hotel room better than the staging room here for pictures of Eddie and the bridesmaids getting ready, so that's a last-minute change. I'm sure they'll be here soon, though."

On cue, Thompson wandered pointlessly into the lobby from the direction of the suite where all the men of the wedding party were getting ready. He made his way over to Jamie and Lena and shook Jamie's hand. "Nervous yet, Reagan?"

"Not at all," Jamie smirked. "Lena, you remember my partner. You two seemed to really hit it off last night at the rehearsal dinner."

Lena pressed her lips together in flat acknowledgement. "Yes, hello."

"Great to see you again," Thompson said, offering a bashful smile.

"Well, what did you expect—that I wouldn't show up to my own daughter's wedding?" Lena scoffed.

"Right. Well, I was just on my way to find my grandpa," Jamie said, swinging his arms in front of his body until his hands met and flopped down to rest against his thighs. "I'll see you both in a bit."

Out of Lena's line of sight, Thompson narrowed his eyes and sneered at Jamie's back as he walked away.

"Is it true?" Lena said, drawing his attention back to her. "My daughter really isn't here yet?"

"Uh," Thompson said. He knew it wasn't true—Eddie and the bridesmaids were getting ready in a large staging room downstairs. Having had plenty of time to get to know Lena last night, he sort of understood why Jamie and Eddie had come up with the hotel lie, but he couldn't quite bring himself to repeat it.

Lena's eyes narrowed at his hesitation. "She _is_ here, isn't she? Of course _Jamie_ would take it on himself to keep me from her." She spat his name in disgust.

"Um—"

"You know your way around this church, young man?"

"Kind of," Thompson managed. Between last night and this morning he'd seen enough of the enormous building that he could manage. And he definitely _did_ know the way to the bride's room.

"You'll help me then," Lena declared. "I'd like to find my daughter, make sure all the last-minute preparations are going well. A bride needs her mother on her wedding day."

"Yeah, sure," Thompson sighed. "Um, I think it's this way." He offered Lena his arm and turned left to head down a side hallway. He wasn't sure where it went exactly, but that didn't matter. He just had to avoid any stairs.

* * *

Erin pushed her way into the multipurpose room that served as the bridal staging area. The space buzzed as bridesmaids in purple dresses, all the same shade but slightly different styles, flittered around to take care of the finishing touches. Eddie sat on a rolling chair in the center of the room with Greene's little daughter on her lap as the hair stylist picked at the veil, making sure it fell perfectly behind her head.

"Is everybody just about set?" Erin called. "We've got to move upstairs in about twenty minutes."

"Almost ready," Eddie replied. "Whoa, girlfriend, where you going?"

Greene's wife Alaina stepped forward to grab the squirming toddler, who wore a sleeveless white top with a hilariously flouncy purple tutu to match the wedding party.

"Alaina, can she have a graham cracker?" asked Shannon, the mother of the other flower girl. She handed another half cracker to her daughter and offered the other half to Alaina.

Erin watched the exchange and then stepped closer to Eddie. "To answer your earlier question, yeah, your mom got here half an hour ago. But Jamie's partner seems to have it under control."

Eddie raised her eyebrows suspiciously.

"I saw them a minute ago on my way back here from checking on the Father," Erin elaborated. "All the way upstairs, wandering around the office wing. I think Thompson told her he'd bring her to see you."

Eddie laughed, earning her a look from the woman fussing over her. "I've never been a huge fan of that kid but you know? Maybe he's alright."

Erin nodded. "So. You seem good. You're good?"

"Yeah," Eddie said, though her voice got notably smaller. "Ready to get this show on the road."

"Well, you look beautiful. I can't wait to see Jamie's face when he sees you."

"God, he better not start crying," Eddie muttered. "If he starts crying then I'll start crying and then it'll all just be a big mess."

"Do what you gotta do," the stylist cut in. "They make waterproof makeup for a reason."

"You don't seem too nervous," Erin observed. "But Jamie sent me with this, just in case." She dropped a package of M&Ms on Eddie's lap.

"No way," the stylist snapped. "None of that. Lips are perfect, don't want any color to get on your hands or rub off on your dress…"

"I'll save them for later," Eddie grinned.

"You're really doing okay, though?" Erin pressed.

"I think so. There's some butterflies happening. But I'll make it."

"Because the other option, if the candy's not enough, is to give you a little scotch before we send you down the aisle." Erin held up her hand and wiggled the shot glass Jamie had given her, an extra from the customized souvenirs he'd given to all his groomsmen.

"Now we're talking," Eddie smirked.

"Eh, you wouldn't be the first bride who needed a little liquid courage," Kara said. "Let's be honest, it's a miracle I could walk a straight line down the aisle when I got married."

"Really?"

"Really. I spent the whole night before puking my guts out, I was so nervous. My sister started pumping me full of booze at about ten in the morning and the ceremony wasn't till four. So trust me, you may not feel like it, but you really do have it together better than most."

"Guess so," Eddie conceded. "Thanks to you guys, mostly—and Thompson. I'm going to owe him big time after this."

* * *

"Stop!"

Thompson jumped at Lena's sharp tone and turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"We already came through this way, you idiot. It's been more than thirty minutes. I'm sick of you dragging me all over this god-awful church—if you didn't know where my daughter is, you should've just told me and saved us both a lot of time."

Thompson blew out a long, relieved breath. As long as Lena didn't figure out that he was actively trying to keep her as far away from Eddie as possible, he'd be okay. He was actually quite proud of himself so far, that he'd truly convinced Lena that he was trying to help and they were just lost. He thought he'd have cracked under the pressure five minutes into the fake search.

"Do you want a drink? I need one," he finally said, pressing fingers into his eyeballs. "This place is just so confusing."

"Where will we find a drink in a _church_?" Lena demanded.

"I bet we can come up with something."

Lena scowled, hands on her hips in a pose Thompson had seen Eddie adopt a million times. It was her subtle way of communicating her irritation to Jamie at the precinct, when they were in professional mode. "Fine," she muttered. "But you better get us back to the right place in time for the ceremony. If you make me miss my daughter's wedding, so help me, I'll have you fired. Your Commissioner's in the family now, remember."

Thompson fought the urge to roll his eyes as they turned back the way they came.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Here it is...the last chapter. I planned to show more of the ceremony and/or the reception and/or the honeymoon but I think I arrived at a natural ending place (which is good, because I wouldn't have time to write more chapters anyways!). Thank you all for reading this story, giving your feedback, and making it so fun to write. Also, happy New Episode Friday! Until next time -Sandy

* * *

"Got a minute?"

Jamie looked up from the card Eddie had written him for their wedding day. He'd read it so many times that he had it memorized by now, but still, each time he looked over her smooth, loopy handwriting he wondered if this would be the moment he lost his mind from the anticipation.

"Sure," he said.

Frank nodded and sat in the plastic folding chair across from Jamie's. "You've done good, son. You make me proud and I know your mother would be too."

Jamie nodded.

"Just wish she and Joe could be here to see this. It's all your mom and me ever wanted for you, you know. For you to find the person who makes your heart happy. And with Eddie, I think you have."

One side of Jamie's mouth curved up into a sad, lopsided smile. "I think so too. Though Mom's probably rolling over in her grave that I not only _became_ a cop, I'm _marrying_ one."

Frank chuckled. "Oh, I think she'd overlook that. What could she have against _you_ marrying a cop when she did the same thing?"

"I guess that's true."

"You just have to keep your eyes on the big picture," Frank continued. "This is the happiest day of your life, I get that. But that happiness won't always be there. I know I've told you this many times during your engagement but I'll say it again: marriage is a long road of compromises. You can't keep score of winners and losers. You and Eddie, you're on the same team now, forever. One of you triumphs, you both do. But you share in the sad times as well."

Jamie nodded again.

"Now, of course, we do hope the happy times outweigh the sad. And that's possible if you and Eddie continue to find your happiness in each other, as you have already learned to do so well, rather than in all the external things beyond your control. You two are set up to share a wonderful life together. My hope for you is that you find a way to live up to all the possibilities."

"That's our goal," Jamie replied.

"So don't get lazy about your marriage. Keep each other your top priority and you'll find your way."

Jamie smiled. "Eddie and I—we're lucky to have you to look up to. Going off your and Mom's example I think we'll do well for ourselves."

"We weren't perfect," Frank mused. "But we did have it figured out, how to raise great kids. I think you and Eddie will be better than we ever were. And as a father, that's all I could ever hope for."

Laughing a little, Jamie ran a hand over his head. "But even if we're just half as good as you and Mom were—we'll be all right."

Frank's mustache twitched over his closed smile and he checked his watch. "Well now, looks like you oughta be getting up there. Fifteen minutes to showtime and your groomsmen already went to escort the ladies."

Jamie sighed and heaved himself out of his chair, stretching.

And then the door burst open.

"Good, Reagan, I need some of that Johnnie Wal—oh, sorry, Commissioner, sir."

Frank nodded at the reddening intruder. "Thompson."

Jamie frowned. "Where's—"

"…minutes and my poor little girl needs her mother!"

"Ah."

Lena rounded into the room and stopped short, making a face when her eyes landed on Jamie and Frank. "You, Jamie," she snapped. "Leaving me alone with this moron? Can't even find his way through the Lord's house to the bridal suite. It's like he doesn't understand that I have a right to see my daughter on her wedding day!"

"Lena," Frank greeted, smirking sideways at his son.

Thompson crossed the room to the table where the groomsmen had left the bottle of scotch.

" _So_ sorry about that, Lena," Jamie said. "Thompson never has had the best sense of direction. But we're getting close. Can I walk you up? We'll take our seats."

Accepting her drink from Thompson, Lena huffed before downing it in one swallow. "Well," she clucked. "I suppose better you than him."

* * *

The last five minutes took the longest.

As she stood with the wedding party in the lobby outside the chapel, Eddie could see Jamie waiting next to his father and her mother in the front row. He stared dutifully ahead, never turning around where he might see her too soon. But all she wanted was to get to him already. She was sick of all the pomp and circumstance of the wedding and it hadn't even started yet. It felt like nothing but an inconvenient obstacle standing between Edit Marie Janko and Edit Janko Reagan.

Was it too late to ask the priest to skip all the opening blabber and go straight to the _I do_ s?

"Okay, let's go ahead and line up," Nicky said, her voice cutting sharply into Eddie's brain. She'd taken over this last step for her mother so that Erin could sit in the audience with everybody else. "Uncle Danny and Officer Walsh, you're first…"

"We know," Danny groaned, though the smile on his face dampened the effect of his irritated tone.

Four pairs of adults fell in line, and Nicky's escort waited in the right spot while Nicky fussed over the three kids behind them all. Finally satisfied that the girls' dresses were right and the ring bearer would hold the pillow at an angle that wouldn't drop the pretend rings, she double-checked that Danny had the real rings in his pocket before she took her spot in line.

"You ready, kiddo?" Henry rumbled.

"Ready for this to be over with," Eddie replied. "You know I haven't eaten since seven o'clock? The faster we move this along the faster we get to lunch."

"Only you," Henry laughed.

It occurred to Eddie that she should thank him for walking her down the aisle, since her own father wasn't available and there was no way in hell she'd reward her mother with that kind of role. He'd volunteered a few weeks ago, after Lena was disinvited from the wedding and he heard Eddie and Linda discussing whether it would be odd for Eddie to walk solo down the aisle. She would've done it, the way she'd done so much else on her own in her adult life—but there was a certain beauty in the fact that in the Reagan family, she wouldn't have to.

She couldn't force any words out around the lump that bobbed in her throat.

The music started. The first pair stepped into the chapel.

This was it.

Except it wasn't—Eddie let go of Henry's arm to lean down and urge the children forward. The distraction helped to minimize the way her brain was dragging each second into an hour.

And then the kids were off. The guests cooed in unison at the cuteness of Kara's son gripping the ring pillow in one hand and pulling Greene's distracted toddler along with the other. On the boy's other side, Shannon's daughter solemnly dropped enormous handfuls of flower petals as they walked just a little too fast to the altar, and she ran out of petals about halfway there. Apparently she didn't remember her instructions to just hold the empty basket and keep going—she dropped it at the end of the flower trail and, to everybody's amusement, skipped the rest of the way to her mother at the front.

The music changed.

The crowd stood.

Really, now, _this_ was it.

* * *

Jamie laughed alongside everybody else as the three kids made their way down the aisle. The movement distracted him for a second as Greene and his wife leaned up from their spot in the front row on the bride's side to scoop up both flower girls. Kara's husband picked up their son and held him up so he could see over all the standing guests—

Eddie.

As soon as he saw her step into view, the entire room faded into a blur—even her.

It took him a very long second to process that it was because his eyes had welled with tears at the significance of this moment. He desperately blinked them away and let himself press a hand into one eye to stop any more from replacing them. Then his hands found his pockets again. He ignored the voice in the back of his head screaming at him to breathe because really that was just another distraction.

Eddie.

She absolutely _glowed_ and he'd never seen anything more beautiful in his life. Her face started in a small, nervous smile but he met her eyes and she gave him the biggest trademark Eddie grin he'd ever seen. The dress—the lacy strapless bodice that accentuated her curves, the light, gauzy skirt that swished weightlessly with each step—the veil, framing her blonde hair like some kind of iridescent halo—which was appropriate, because God, if there were angels on earth, _this_ was what they'd look like.

And then she was _inches_ away, so close that he could've touched her, and he _wanted_ to but he knew he had to wait as his grandfather patted her hand and dragged out his movements as he leaned to kiss her cheek and what was Henry trying to do, _kill_ him? Inside his pockets, Jamie's hands dug into his thighs just to release the excited tension that flowed through his entire body.

Finally, _finally_ , Henry turned to shuffle to his seat next to Frank. Eddie took one more step, transferring her bouquet to Kara, and Jamie held out his hands, which she accepted. She looked up at him and her eyes sparkled impossibly from underneath the fake lashes. She held his eyes for a long moment, biting her lip, until they managed to break their gaze from one another and glance at the priest to let him start the ceremony.

"Dearly beloved," he began, "we are gathered here today…"

Jamie's eyes landed on Eddie's face again and he sort of toned the priest out. He'd let them know when it was their part to actually _do_ something. For now he was perfectly happy to stand here and hold her hands and think how lucky he was, that from this moment Eddie would stand by him for the rest of his life.


End file.
